5 Bright Annuals To Be Sown In Early February. Sowing Features. The Best Varieties And Hybrids. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

As many gardeners joke, winter is November and December, and January-February is already the anticipation of spring. Indeed, the daylight hours are slowly increasing, the streets are again filled with the sonorous songs of the titmouses, and the flower growers can not wait to start a sowing campaign.

As practice shows, the optimal month for sowing most ornamental crops is March. Nevertheless, there are a number of flowering plants, which are recommended to be sown as early as possible - in late January-early February, otherwise it takes too long to wait for their flowering. What annual flowers I sow for seedlings in January-February, I will tell in the article.

All of these flowers belong to crops with a long growing season. Usually their seedlings “swing” in germination for a very long time and need more time to start than most other flowers, so it is important not to be late with sowing such flowers.

1. Eustoma (lisianthus)

An inimitable annual with flowers that are easily confused with a rose at half-life. For the earliest flowering, this charming flower is recommended to be sown almost in December. But the beginning of February is no less favorable time to start sowing it. In this case, the beginning of flowering of most varieties begins towards the end of July.

It is better not to plant eustoma later, since Lisianthus has a very long period of budding. In this case, the buds will begin to bloom only in the fall. And if the autumn time turns out to be rainy, then the delicate flowers will suffer very much from the rain.

Features of sowing eustoma seeds for seedlings

The size of eustoma seeds is comparable to small petunia seeds, but fortunately, they are most often sold in granules, which makes sowing much easier. Like most gardeners, I prefer to spread out small coated seeds with a damp toothpick. Before that, I try to level the soil in the planting tank as much as possible and remove large pieces of peat. After the surface of the substrate becomes even and uniform, in a checkerboard pattern with a dry toothpick I make tiny holes at a distance of two centimeters from each other, in which I carefully place the seeds, I do not fall asleep on top of the granules.

Due to the shallow depth, during subsequent moistening from the spray gun, small seeds do not spread over the surface, but remain in the places designated for them. Due to the fact that at first the eustoma seedlings grow very slowly, placing the seeds at a distance from each other in a checkerboard pattern in the future will avoid unnecessary picking.

Best of all, Lisianthus seeds germinate in the light, so it is advisable to immediately place containers with crops under a phytolamp. Until the pellet shell is completely dissolved, it is advisable to spray the crops from a sprayer as often as possible or drip with a pipette directly onto each seed.

Germination of seeds at a temperature of 20-25 degrees takes 1-2 weeks. Eustoma shoots are very small with narrow elongated cotyledons. During the first months, Lisianthuses grow so slowly that sometimes it seems as if the plants are completely in place. A noticeable leap in the development of eustomas, followed by rapid growth, usually occurs by June, when the plants are ready for planting in a permanent place.

The best varieties of eustoma

At first, I grew exceptionally tall eustomas. But, despite all their beauty, such varieties have a number of disadvantages. For example, they practically do not bush, and the stems are not too resistant and therefore require a garter, delicate petals suffer greatly from rain. It is difficult for tall eustomas to find partners in a flower garden, since eustomas, like roses, outshine their neighbors with their royal appearance. For this reason, tall eustomas are flowers grown mainly for cut into bouquets.

Fortunately, you can find dwarf eustomas on the market for container growing. The height of these plants does not exceed 20 centimeters, the bushes willingly branch out, and with the onset of cold weather they can be easily placed on the windowsill in order to continue admiring the charming roses.

Theoretically, eustomas can also overwinter in an apartment, but in my case the attempt was unsuccessful due to the invasion of a spider mite. Of the dwarf eustomas, I most liked the Rosie variety series with double flowers of various colors, as well as the non-double two-colored Carmen eustomas (white petals with a purple border) and the Sapphire Pink Rim hybrid, which has white flowers with a pale pink border.

The continuation of the list of summer plants that should be sown for seedlings in early February, see the next page

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