Old cottage gardens are mainly home to large nasturtiums with their bright yellow to orange flowers. The varieties with white, pink or even black flowers, on the other hand, are largely unknown, but they are no less decorative than their well-known relatives.
How to grow nasturtiums?
To successfully grow nasturtiums, sow seeds outdoors from mid-May, plant out after the ice saints, keep seeds well moist and possibly provide climbing aids for long-shooting varieties. Moving forward in the warm is possible from March.
Growing and caring for nasturtiums is not difficult and should be easy for even beginner gardeners. Even if you choose a lush, climbing variety, you should not fertilize your nasturtium at all or only sparingly if you want to enjoy rich flowers.
Sowing nasturtiums
You can sow nasturtiums directly outdoors from around mid-May. Since it is not frost hardy, you should wait until the Ice Saints are over. The relatively large seeds can easily be stuck into the soil individually or in pairs. The distance between the plants should be about 20 to 30 cm.
Cover the seeds with about one to two centimeters of soil, because nasturtium is a dark germinator. Always keep the seeds well moist and the first seedlings will appear after about 10 - 20 days.
If you would like to see nasturtiums blooming very early in your garden, then you should plant them on the windowsill or in the greenhouse in March. To do this, always put two to three seeds in a pot, cover them with soil and always keep the seeds moist.
Planting nasturtiums
You should definitely wait until after the Ice Saints around mid-May to plant your nasturtium. Otherwise the tender shoots could fall victim to the last night frosts. The planting distance varies significantly depending on the variety chosen. You can plant bushy variants next to each other in matching colors, long vines can also grow together or use a common trellis.
The most important things in brief:
- Sowing outdoors from mid-May
- Advance in the warm from March
- Planting out only after the Ice Saints
- possibly climbing aid for long-shooting varieties
Tips & Tricks
There are very beautiful, small varieties of nasturtiums with a wide variety of flower colors for balcony planting.
