I think this is hands down the best fragrance in any garden!!!! Its different then the regular stock that you grow
Its just a small spindley lil plant that has no flowers until dusk and then these tiny lil things unroll and the scent fills the
garden-to die for!!!! The flowers are not really that pretty but the aroma is hevenly-one lil sprig can fill a room. Everyone
that I have MADE smell it cant quit! they keep sniffing and sniffing and ahhhhhhhhhhhing!! lol
I plant them everywhere there is a bench in the garden-under windows by the house-in a planter i can take in at nite!!!
This is the ONE and ONLY flower that I would chose if I could have only one-but i can have more LOL
ok off the stock soapbox!!! ;)
NIGHT SCENTED STOCK!!!
OK, I'm hooked. Do they tolerate heat? I'm wondering if it's too late to plant them now if I can find seeds.
We've sowed them directly in place in May to flower and perfume throughout July into September - our hottest and humid-ist time. The spot was in partial shade. Matthiola bicornis seems much more tolerant of our hot summers than M. incana. Also, although the plant is floppy and spindly, as a group, the directly sown seedlings made a nice thick, pretty edging in front of some scented geraniums which also can take partial shade. Nicotania is great to have sort of off to the side and toward the back of this combination.
http://www.valueseeds.com/index.html is selling a packet of Evening Stock for 2000 seed / 49 cents.
I ordered some and will be growing it for the first time this year. I can't wait to see if it is all that! I believe I ordered mine from Hudson.
berrygirl, sorry about that - I enthused over Hudson before doing any comparison shopping. Well, I have a soft spot for Mr. Hudson's enterprise and hope he stays around.
blue,
You have nothing to apologize for! I too order from the cheaper folks. I used to order a lot from this discounted co but their website is always down. I think its called homevalue seeds? I wanna save a buck too- LOL!
I too love Hudson.
They self seed too!
Yipee!! Well maybe a bit premature. I won't be saying yipee if the don't think they smell good and I have a gazillion of them- LOL!
bluespiral, I didn't see it when I ordered mine. I've had the seed for a couple months now, did I miss it, or are they adding seeds periodically? Which page is it on?
Not martha sent me some a few years ago, and I couldn't get it to grow, I direct sowed outside. I'd like to try again starting it indoors first.
Melissa,
Well, join our seed RR as I will be putting some stock seed in there!
Berry girl I was too late. I found it on valu seeds, and placed another order. I couldn't justify paying the shipping for just ONE packet of seeds. :-)
This message was edited Jan 17, 2006 11:56 PM
Well I'm just glad you found some. Enjoy it!
Hi Melissa - just caught your question about evening stock and see you found it - DH is having surgery soon (not too major) and other aspects of life are becoming "pressing", so can't spend too much time on DG. If anyone wants to contact me, I will at least be checking dmail.
Evidently, evening stock needs light to germinate, so don't cover the seed when you sow it and cover with transparent plastic (ventilated occasionally) until signs of germination sow. (Outdoors, I cover seed very lightly and then scratch it so some are exposed and some not)
Also, this is a plant said to like "moist" conditions. The soil in my garden is basically clay into which I double-trenched compost and peat when I was able to do that, so it is highly water-retentive - especially being mulched after being planted. Outdoors, I haven't needed to water evening stock artificially.
Because I am horrible at finding that spot between keeping a plant happily "moist" and drowned - not to mention damping-off issues, I only sow seeds so that they can be put outside as soon as they germinate which is around April 15 here.
Well - this year I'm trying winter-sowing, too. So I don't know about y'all, but since so many seeds come in the packet for evening stock, I'm dividing it into 3 parts - 1 for each type of germination.
This year, I WILL conquer my own ineptitudes with - at least - evening stock #***!