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Cobaea Scandens
I need some advice from the Cup and Saucer plant growers amongst us. I have not grown Cobaea Scandens before but saw them in Sarah Raven's garden last year and had to have a go. I followed the advice I read everywhere and sowed the seeds in January as they need a long growing season to flower in late summer. I even bought a heated propagator as heat was needed for germination. So now they are all germinating and I am taking the little pots out of the propagator as they germinate but I need to know what to do next as I know they grow quickly. I guess I should pot them on soon. Should I try to slow them down? I have a greenhouse but it's not heated. Any advice would be very welcome.
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Unless you have a huge area of wall to cover, you won't need many as they are vigorous plants! Pot on as many as you want, plus a spare, when they look ready for a larger pot.You could keep them in the propagator a bit longer if you can spare the space, or move them to a warm windowsill indoors. My usual progression is: warm propagator, seed tray with lid on windowsill, ventilate lid, remove lid, move to cold greenhouse. Then harden off , if planting outdoors.
Thanks Buttercup, very helpful to know what you do. I have sown quite a few seeds intending to sell a few little surplus pots at work. When would you suggest they could be moved to a cold greenhouse?
There's cold and there's cold! I'm up in the Pennines and you're down in Suffolk so I dare say the average day/night temperatures will be higher sooner where you are. The plants will be checked if they get too cold, so keep an eye on the max/min thermometer to make sure that you have night -time temps safely above freezing and/or cover with some fleece if it's too chilly.
I would even sow these until March, they like warmth, you darent plant them out until mid May at the earliest. Have you got space to have them indoors, for the next 4 months? They will grow tall so will need staking.
Sarah says plant Jan to March, the latter is better. Have you got some more seeds,