How To Sow Biennials
It may seem like a bit of a strange time to be sowing flower seeds, but June and July are the perfect months for sowing your biennial flower seeds. So, what are biennials? And why are we sowing them now?
Biennials are plants that have a two-year life cycle. In the first year, they germinate and grow leaves and in the second year they flower, before setting seed and dying. The warmth of the summer months helps the seeds to germinate and the plants to get established. They will have bulked out enough by the early autumn so you can plant them outside where you want them to flower. Because the soil is still warm in autumn, the plant will have enough time to put down a good root system and build up their strength before the winter arrives.
Due to the fact that you’ve got them going early, biennials tend to flower fairly early in the year. This means you can extend your growing season and have some lovely fillers to mix in with your spring flowers bulbs.
Below are some of the seeds we will be sowing in the community garden, ready to be enjoyed next year.
foxgloves
Photo by Alina Trifan
Foxgloves for me are such a classic of a cottage garden. You can get lots of varieties of foxgloves coming in all different colours. We particularly like Suttons Apricot and Alba, which are pictured above. Foxgloves are also loved by pollinators, so a great addition to a wildlife friendly garden or allotment. Just be careful, as foxgloves are poisonous, so might not be the best choice if you have children or pets.
sweet william
These remind me of my grandparents as they used to grow them in their garden. The make a fantastic cut flower due to its strong stems and large flower heads lasting for several weeks in water.
‘Sweet’ is an extremely fragrant Sweet William variety. Clusters of sweetly scented flowers in shades of red, white and purple are borne on sturdy stems from June to September. For best results deadhead regularly to prolong flowering.
Honesty & Hesperis
Honesty is such an easy binenial to grow and provides a range of interest throughout the year. It is also called Lunaria, because after it flowers the plant produces beautiful oval-shaped seed heads. The seed heads have a thin film covering them and when peeled away it reveals a beautiful mother or pearl style effect. We often let the flowers go to seed for this reason, as these opal-like seed heads look fantastic dried in wreaths.
Hesperis, or Sweet Rocket, is one of the first filler flowers to arrive in the cutting garden. It produces really long stems and the flowers have a delicious scent. Perfect as a cut flower and the bees love it!
We are also going to be giving Icelandic poppies a go this year and try growing them in the glasshouse. I was very inspired by Sophie from Chatsworth House and the amazing display she created this year.