Eventual height & spread
Matthiola incana 'Appleblossom'
traditional field-grown column stocks (syn. Appleblossom Pink')
- approx 100 seeds
- £3.99
- In stock (shipped within 3-5 working days)
Delivery options
- Seed Packets (only) £2.95
- Position: Full sun
- Soil: Moderately fertile, moist but well drained soil
- Rate of growth: Fast
- Flowering: June to October
- Hardiness: Hardy biennial (often grown as an annual)
Sweetly scented, pale pink packed blooms, many of which will be fully double, on strong, single stems. A cottage garden staple, stocks have long been popular both for bedding and for providing cut flowers, ‘Appleblossom’ would also look stunning in a dark or metallic pot as part of a contemporary scheme. A hardy biennial when grown in summer for flowering early in the season of the following year, it is most commonly grown as an annual from a sowing in early spring.
Keep watered during dry spells and apply a monthly, liquid, general-purpose fertiliser during the growing season. Pinch out the top as they grow to encourage branching and more flower spikes, cutting back the main stem once flowers have faded to encourage side shoots to bloom too.
Fill trays with good quality compost and lightly cover the seeds. Water and grow on at 13-18°C. Prick out seedlings with a green/yellow colour and discard the dark green ones which will produce only single flowers. Pot on when they have put on their first true leaves and then harden off before planting out at 20-30cm intervals after the frosts have passed. Seeds sown in autumn and overwintered in a frost-free frame, will produce plants which will flower earlier in the year, than those sown in spring.
- Sow: October to November or February to March
