Apricot & Lavender: four new annuals to grow from seed
I like to try a few new annuals each year, and this year there are four that I have really fallen in love with, in pastel shades of lavender and apricot: Papaver rhoeas ‘Amazing Grey’, Consolida ajacis ‘Misty Lavender’, Calistephus chinensis ‘Duchesse Apricot’ and Antirrhinum ‘Chantilly Light Salmon’. Eagerly awaited, the new field poppy ‘Amazing Grey’ (above) was a complete winner. I had ordered two packets from Chiltern Seeds (so anxious was I to succeed with this sought-after flower) – and a good thing too as most didn’t germinate, probably because I sowed them randomly by scattering seed in the borders in late March and then forgot and covered the soil with a thick layer of compost mulch. But three or four plants germinated and that was enough to produce a good crop of flowers. I watched the buds forming throughout June, willing them to open - an agonisingly slow process. Then on June 23, the first flower opened, unfurling to reveal crumpled tissue-paper petals in the most beautiful shade of lavender grey. Over the next few weeks more flowers appeared, some double, some single, in varying shades of pale lilac, steely blue and pink-tinged taupe - some more translucent than others, and all unbelievably beautiful, especially woven in with lacy-white Ammi majus. And they have only just finished flowering this week (August 21), the blooms gradually getting smaller and eventually whisked away by a strong wind. I’m leaving their seed heads as long as possible and will collect some seed and leave the rest to seed around in the border. This is definitely a plant I want to encourage back every year.
Larkspur ‘Misty Lavender’ is another beauty and I had fortuitously put it in the same bed as the poppy ‘Amazing Grey’. The colours were perfect together. I sowed the larkspur in autumn under cover and again only a few seeds germinated, but I nurtured six or seven seedlings, potting them on through the winter, which was enough for a small border. Larkspur aren’t the easiest to germinate I’ve found; it can help to put the seeds in the fridge for a couple of weeks before sowing. They are hardy annuals so I planted them out in late March, and they started flowering around the same time as the poppy, in June. I thought I’d lost them when they were all blown sideways in the strong winds of April, but they just carried on growing askew and then upwards with multiple spires, and as the rest of the border developed around them, their weird shape was hidden. They produce loose-limbed spires of double lavender flowers that weave in with other naturalistic cottage garden plants like ammi, and are great for cutting too.
The two apricot-coloured annuals I grew this year were the snap dragon Antirrhinum ‘Chantilly Light Salmon’ and an annual aster, Calistephus chinensis ‘Duchesse Apricot’. The snapdragon promised to be so good, germinating easily and started off in modular trays in my greenhouse in early spring. They are half hardy, so can’t be planted out too early - but I think I held onto them in pots too long, because they haven’t reached the promised 90cm with sturdy stems, and are all slightly weedy plants. The flowers are lovely though, in varying shades of pink and apricot, with white throats, and they have been good in pots. The calistephus has only just started to flower now, in late August, and I wasn’t sure whether I was going to like it. The first flowers are large and luscious, pale pink with an apricot centre, and frilly like a chrysanthemum. I think they are going to be great for pots - their growth is quite bushy and they seem to be producing multiple flowers, so I am hoping they will be good for cutting too.
Grow all these from seed started in early spring. Sow the poppies direct, all the others in seed trays to be planted out in later spring.
Find more annuals, biennials and perennials to grow from seed in The Flower Garden.
