Garden Notes: Wallflowers

[callmemadam]

I love wallflowers. Not the horrid, dumpy Siberian kind but the tall, almost shrubby types with flowers in tawny shades and a glorious scent. Beware those field-grown wallflowers with muddy roots which you sometimes see for sale in the autumn. They’re almost always dwarf bedding varieties. Wallflowers are biennials and it’s very convenient for the gardener that just as they are in flower it’s time to start thinking about sowing for next year. It’s well worth the effort. You start with this



and get this.



I was determined to have wallflowers this year. My new garden has no vegetable patch or handily spare patches of soil so last spring I simply sowed the seeds in a very deep seed tray, let them grow and planted them out, right against the house wall, in September. This has worked very well. My favourite of all wallflowers is the variety ‘Blood Red’.





Annoyingly, although I’ve already bought my seeds of ‘Fire King’, ‘Blood Red’ can’t be had anywhere. Looking in my seed box I found that I hadn’t used all the seeds in last year’s packet.



I’ll give them a go and hope they’re still viable. The classic plant combination is of course wallflowers with tulips and forget-me-nots but I’m quite happy with my stand-alone wallflowers.

Comments

They look great!

[aellia.livejournal.com]

I haven't groen Wallflowers for years.
Have they still got that heady fragrance?

Re: They look great!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'd notice the smell more if there were some warmer air to waft it around. Still horribly cold here.

Re: They look great!

[aellia.livejournal.com]

So cold here,too!
I've had my hands of the covers of the Rayburn but it didn't warm me enough.
I've put the heating on :-(
x

[mammadibiba.livejournal.com]

Your stand-alone wallflowers are glorious.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ramblingfancy.livejournal.com]

They look gorgeous against the whitewalls of your cottage. I'm only sorry we couldn't find any Blood Red! It's so chilly my radiator (on auto setting) is radiating madly this evening!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Glad you like them.
Mega frost this morning and the heating roaring away!

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Do you put the seeds straight in the ground or do you grow them in pots and then transfer when larger?

We saw lots of lovely wallflowers in Dorset and it made me want some.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Ideally, you'd sow them straight into the ground in drills, having worked the soil to a fine tilth. Ha! Counsel of perfection. They're not usually sown where they are to flower, but treated more like a crop (Sweet Williams should be grown the same way). Not everyone has the luxury of the spare soil unless they have an allotment and as I said, my seed tray method worked well.

[(Anonymous)]

I love wallflowers, too. Those are beautiful. Interestingly I was reading Rebecca Wests novel This Real Night and she states that in Edwardian times all wallflowers were a soft brown colour.
Nicola@vintagereads

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

What a nice reference! Brown is uncommon now except in some mixtures or if you leave them to seed and they muddle themselves up.