Sweet William

Gt I grew mine from seed and it came through last years severe winter so it is quite hardy, anyway good luck hope it survives for you1

love them :)))

its lovely Greenthumb....

Great shot GT.

Thank you. I do have dianthus return, so I'm hopeful for this.

I tried to seed these flowers, but.... no one came out :(

I'd really appreciate some tips Pansypotter

Lovely colour :o)

Thank you. I do hope it survives well.

I've grown these many times from seed. The first time I was still a lad probably between 10 & 12 years old. Since then I've grown them many a time. The last time was only about 3 or perhaps 4 years ago. I'll have to have a look through my photos on the computer & see if I have some photos still.

Aleyna:

They are very easy to grow from seed either bought or saved from your own plants. I sow them thinly in a tray of compost, just covering the seeds. I then put them in plastic bag & leave them for a week or two, just having a peek, after the first week, daily till I see they have started to germinate. Once that has happened I take them out & leave them in a bright place, but out of the sun, after a couple of weeks I put them into little pots to grow on. A couple of months later I put them into 3" pots where they will stay till the autumn when I plant them out into their flowering positions. While the soil is free draining, they hate standing in cold, wet soil, they will need next to no care till the spring. Just make sure they are firm in the soil after frost & they should flower in May - June.

Ah, to be somewhere warm enough to get a good result from a biennial. :-)

Surely there are plenty that would grow in your conditions. I think it's their way of surviving winters like yours that caused these plants to evolve in this way. Our winters, even bad ones like we had this year, may not be as cold as yours but the SW just shrug it off. A lady, Eileen, over the path from us on the allotment, grew several rows of them, probably for cut flowers, & they did very well.

If you had something like a cold frame surely you could grow them. While they are kept fairly dry I would hope they survive. But then you live there & I don't & I can't imagine what it must be like to try & get plants through the winter in Alsaka.

I've got a viburnum that does well though it needs a move and there are a few poppies. It all depends on the winter. A winter like a few years ago with -60F for a few weeks with little snow coverage and things just die. Then last year didn't even reach -40C at all. Some things will get warmed up and start sprouting in March and then get killed by two more months of frost. There are things that love it here classed for Zone 7-8 and then things that die that are Zone2-3, which is our area. Just gotta try really, and be resigned to lose things years later sometimes. I've left out the SW, dianthus do well here and they are in the same family, but SW is rare to see, even as an annual here so there is something to that as well.

I hope your SW will come through the winter & give you lovely flowers next year.