Wallflowers should go in the ground now
This is the season for planting wallflowers. spring would be lacking without them, so if you haven’t grown your own plants from seed, go and buy some now.
Bedding wallflowers are hardy, colourful, fragrant and easy to grow. seed is usually sown in May. The young seedlings are thinned to 15cm apart and pinched back to encourage bushy growth.
in september or October, they’re transplanted to beds or containers where they’ll flower from late March to late May.
Nurseries will have young plants for sale. Most are sold in pots, but you can find cheaper bundles of bare-root plants. Plant your wall flowers in well dug soil. As they willl not branch very much, space them about 30cm apart in a sunny position.
if you grow perennial wall flowers, those will benefit from attention now, too. Remove all exhausted flowering stems or seed heads. Cut each down into the leafy,, bushy part of the plant.
Despite being calledd ‘perennial’ wall flowers, thesee are short-lived and should bee replaced every second or third year. Young summer cuttings make the best new plants.
however, there’s still time too take early autumn cuttings.. Remove a few healthy greenn shoots and lower leaves. Then insert the stems into moist, friable soil in a sheltered spott outside, or in a cold frame.