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Wallflowers
Theresa Shepherd
Posts: 2
Does anyone else find that wallflowers just self seed and keep coming back year after year ? Do they germinate and grow if you just buy packet seeds and sprinkle on the ground as you can with wild flowers ?
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I've never noticed any self-seeding from my wallflowers, or considered sowing seeds. They do, as pansyface says, get woody and leggy so take soft cuttings before composting them.
This year I pinched out top growth which gave bushy plants with more flowers (although bloomed later than usual).
Love to see them growing with tulips
My wallflowers self seed everywhere, they seem to like it here
Mine have never self seeded, they rarely last though the cold wet Dordogne winters for a second year either. Forgot to sow seeds, just bought some plants. But Lyn on the Forkers chat thread has just said that she takes cuttings every year. Didn't know you could do that.
One year I made a nursery bed in the veggie garden and scattered the seeds on the ground. They were doing well then something ate them, so now I sow in trays in the GH or cold frame and then pot them on to plant out in the autumn.
I think they may be perennials. Some of mine in the past have straggled (sic) on for years. and self seeded. They probably don't seed true to the original packet but who cares
They last longest up against the house.
In the sticks near Peterborough
I would totally agree that wallflowers are an excellent plant to accompany tulips.....especially the deep red varieties.
They last longer against the house because of the wall. They are lime loving plants and like to have some concrete or rubble in the soil. I have very acid soil and give them a watering can full of lime water. Just once a year on planting.
I've got a very deep overhang on lowish eaves as well Lyn, I think it's all in their favour.
In the sticks near Peterborough
That's worth knowing Lyn, thanks. May even try seeds this year using the shed as a cold frame
I plant them in a bed by the blue hydranga (which changed colour after the pond edging was cemented in), and they did very well this year, but not the tulips or anemones. I wonder if the soil ph has changed all that much?
my wallflowers have self seeded for years-they got knocked back the year it went to -18F but a few survived. i wait until the flower stalks are completely dry and then cut. the entire plant back by about half. the seeds then germinate toward the end of september. my best ones are in a raised bed that is completely shaded from nov til early april. i do believe that clay is absolutely deadly for them
BuzzieB, maybe better now to set your seeds next late Spring/early summer, that way they will grow on through the summer and be big enough to plant out in Oct/Nov time. They will then flower the following Spring.
Edited to add, thats what works for me.
