Gardening Notes: Annual Candytuft
Candytuft was a new plant for me this year. Every description I’d read said “Easy to Grow!” and “May Be Started Indoors!” They failed to mention that those two statements, though they might well be true individually, where NOT true in tandem.
All my other little seedlings are chugging along with vim and vigour, and what do I have to show for 6 weeks of patience? This:
I had initially planted them one seedling to a peat pellet, but quickly saw that they needed company and combined them into yogurt cups. The stems got so long and spindly that a harsh word would cause them to snap. And since they were overflowing their cups in a crowded environment, they were constantly getting mangled. I managed to stem the damage a bit with the drinking straw & twist-tie arrangment shown above, but the survivors were just barely limping on.
I started some more in a peat pot on the windowsill 6 weeks before the last frost date and was very careful to move them as little as possible and give them plenty of space, and these did much better, but they were still fragile for my taste. But somehow I managed to have 4 pots worth to set out.
Once they got themselves established in a windowbox, they actually did surprisingly well. They are in the center in the pictures below, flanked by alternanthera.
Late June:
Late August:
They had a fair number of flowers, mostly this purpleish color. I had been hoping the white from the mix would dominate, but no such luck. Still, this wasn’t bad, and the leaves were quite nice once they’d filled out, and not nearly as fragile anymore. I thought the seedheads were quite interesting looking.
In the early fall, I tried planting some of the seeds I’d collected from the plants indoors to see if they would germinate, and they sat and did nothing. Having read they needed cool temps, I tried just chucking them outdoors. I think at that point the nights were in the 40s and the days in the 50s, and in a few days SPROING! Up they came. So, I think if I try to grow these again next year (which I probably will, because I’m stubborn like that) I will be sowing outdoors.