In the right location in the flower bed, the checkerboard flower self-seeds and forms attractive flower carpets over the years. If you would like to support this, you can easily propagate the plant yourself by sowing.
How do you sow checkerboard flowers correctly?
To sow checkerboard flowers, stratification is required. Collect your own seeds in early summer or buy them from a gardening store. Sow them directly in the flowerbed or germinate them in the refrigerator at 8-10 degrees, then germinate the seeds in seed trays at 18-20 degrees.
The checkerboard flower is a cold germinator
In order for the checkerboard flower seeds to actually sprout, they must be stratified. This means that the seeds need a longer period of cold stimulus in order to sprout.
Seeds
You can get germinable seeds from gardening stores (€3.00 on Amazon). Alternatively, you can collect the seeds yourself in early summer. The harvested seeds have a natural germination inhibition and, if stored in a dark and dry place, will not germinate until autumn.
Sowing in the flowerbed
If you want to sow the chess flower directly into the flower bed, you should chop the soil thoroughly so that it is fine and crumbly. The seeds are sown over a wide area and covered with a fine-mesh wire so that they are not eaten by hungry birds during the cold season.
Cold germination in the refrigerator
The natural cold stimulus can be easily simulated in the refrigerator. You can either place the already sown pots in the refrigerator for four to six weeks or alternatively store a sand seed mixture in the refrigerator for some time.
- Mix the seeds with some moistened sand and put them in a freezer bag.
- Close bag tightly.
- Put in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. The temperature here is around eight to ten degrees.
- Check again and again for germination over the next few weeks.
- Since some moisture can escape even through the tightly closed bag, moisten the sand again if necessary.
After the seeds have had enough cold exposure, proceed as follows:
- Fill bowls with growing substrate.
- Apply sand-seed mixture in a thin layer.
- Cover with a very thin layer of soil (dark germination).
- Wet well with a sprayer and cover with a plastic cap or a clear plastic bag.
The optimal germination temperature is 18 to 20 degrees. Place the seed trays in a bright but not full-sunny place on the windowsill, where the seeds will quickly sprout. As soon as the second or third pair of leaves appear and the small chess flowers have reached a height of around ten centimeters, the plants can be separated.
Tip
Slowly accustom the seeds in the planting trays to the changed temperature conditions. First place the containers in a cool, darkened room for a week and then on the windowsill.
