I just collected some seed from a neighbor's rose campion. Should I start them now so they will bloom next year? Do they like any fertilizer?
Rose campion cullture
They are easy to grow. They reseed everywhere, but they are easy pull if you don't want them. They are biennial. If you sow some now, maybe they will bloom next year.
Don
I'll do that today. thanks.
Don, I wintersowed some rose campion and planted the HOS where they would get full sun, but they don't seem to be growing very much. They are planted near a clematis, and stella d'ora. I was planning on trying to dig them up and replant them elsewhere to see if they'd do better. Do you think that if I soaked them good before I dug them up and wait soaked the new location before I transplanted them, they would survive? I thought I'd wait until evening when sun has gone down, or should I dig them up, separate them and pot them up in 4 in. nursery pots, then transplant them into new location. Maybe that would be too much transplant shock doing it that way. Need yours or anybody's opinion. Or just wait until Fall period until I move them?
They don't grow much their first year. I've read that they don't like "wet feet". They are reseeders. I find them growing places I don't want them. They are easy to pull though. I have never transplanted them at this time of the year. I don't think they have a long root system.
If you like them where they are, leave them there. Just remember they don't grow much the first year. They second is when they take off.
Don
I have been growing rose campion in my yard for years (I live in zone 4-5) and the new ones each year do bloom! I got my start from my mama and they spread alittle every year-I have already been gathering seed pods. I take a pair of clippers and cut the pods off in a big plastic bowl, some seeds will fall out easily as I drop them in the bowl. I put the lid on the bowl and shake it and more seeds come out of the pods. I have sent seeds all over the world.
They reseed like crazy here. Mine are volunteers from seeds that came in my SILs soil. I keep a few because I don't have to water them ever. But it is irritating to pull seedlings - they're in the gravel in the driveway and everywhere else . . .
I never fertilize my rose campion, they seem to do well by just leaving them alone. I have new volunteers every year and they do bloom we also call them "tobacco pinks" I have no idea how they got that name.
well, I may give them a little bone meal because our soil is low in phosphates here.
Don't underestimate them - bone meal certainly can't hurt I don't suppose, but I've never seen one suffer in any sort of conditions. They are truly amazing in that respect. :-)
I cleaned up some in a garden last week that was laying down. I'm wondering if they're at all like Penstemon in the garden - they flop if they get too much nitrogen . . .
It doesn't struggle at all at my house and I'm sure my soil, being in the midst of the woods, is very acidic. Yet this says it prefers limey soil.
http://www.paghat.com/rosecampion.html
Yes I even have some lime in my car to take to the museum for the rose campion and for the chicory.
Has anyone ever tried pinching them back to see if they got bushier and therefore, more blooms?
This message was edited Aug 6, 2010 6:50 PM
It doesn't seem like that would work - the stalks seem to be "predetermined" by the plant, but you could try it.
I might give it a try on one or two plants to see what happens.
I'll be interested in hearing what happens . . .
maybe you can remind next year. I certainly will have a hard time remembering to do that, lol.
With me it's a long shot - some things stick and some don't. I may remember to try it myself - or not. LOL
lol.
Boopsie, are tobacco leaves fuzzy like rose campion? That could be the reason they are call tobacco pinks. A lot of folks mistakenlly call them lamb's ear, too.
Nicotiana is a little bit fuzzy, but not that much. I think that Mullein (Verbascum) seedlings look much more like Lychnis (Rose Campion) than Nicotiana, though.
This is some of my Rose Campion when it was in bloom, too bad they can't stay that way all summer.
still waiting for the seeds to come up.
Woodspirit1, where did you get your seeds at? Do you know how old your seeds that you planted? I have new plants coming up now from fallen seeds this summer but they will bloom next year since they came up late.
That silver fuzzy stem looks similar to dusty miller stems, doesn't it? I WS some, but mine HOS are still HOS, maybe I need to move them. Have been away for another week and we had lots of much needed rain while we werer gone, I've been told, so guess what I'll be doing today? Weeding..
I harvested my seeds from my one plant I had. I realized that some were not ready because they were brownish instead of black. But there were many that were black & ripe.
Pippi, around here some folks call them dusty miller. Of course, a lot of plants have regional names, some of them totally wrong, but I try to learn what they're talking about.
What does HOS mean?
This is the plant that is typically called Dusty Miller around here: Senecio cineraria is a native of the Mediterranean.
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=dusty+miller&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=R_duTImwDMKBlAfRmeS-Dg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCIQsAQwAA&biw=1025&bih=665
Rose campion is formally Lychnis coronaria and does seem to go by a lot of names. It's originally a biennial from southeastern Europe:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/80/
Dusty miller doesn't have the same type leaves as Rose Campion, only similarity seems to be silver in stem, leave color and sort of fuzzy leaves, almost like lamb's ear. Dusty miller, if allowed to go to seed has yellow buds that never bloom. Rose campion has hot pink flowers.
I got plenty rose campion seeds if anybody want to trade for some columbine. I already have 3 colors of columbine and I hope to get all colors; I want to have a area in my yard next year for just columbines. I love 'em!
Boopsie..wished I'd know you wanted some columbine seeds about 6 weeks ago. I could have given you a lot. Cut all mine back after I picked all the seeds off, as they take over, and I see one of mine has come back and has started reblooming. Will have a lot next Spring/Summer to share. The reseed all over the place, but are certainly pretty. I'll make myself a note to remember you when they are dropping their seeds.
mine never came up. Time to fall back and punt.
Woodspirit1, dmail me with your address and I will send you some fresh seeds just gathered and maybe you will have better luck. I got plenty!