Anyone can buy plants, growing them yourself from seeds is a challenge and a fulfillment for many committed gardeners. With the easy-care bearded carnations, this challenge can be mastered relatively easily and with good success, even for beginners.
How do you sow bearded cloves correctly?
Bearded carnations should be sown directly outdoors from the end of April. Sprinkle the seed thinly over the prepared bed, cover with a thin layer of soil, and keep the soil slightly moist during germination. Then plant the young plants in a sunny location.
Buy seeds or collect them yourself?
Whether you collect the seeds from your existing bearded cloves or buy them is a question of time, taste and what you want. The collected seeds are not pure in color but resemble a surprise bag. A colorful mix of bearded cloves will probably grow from it. In addition, collecting them takes a little time and you have to let them mature on the plants beforehand.
Purchased seeds are available immediately and in large quantities and are usually pre-sorted. So you also get colorful assortments of either single-flowering or double bearded carnations, but also seeds of a specific color.
Prefer indoors or sow outdoors?
The hardy bearded carnations are one of the flowers that you should sow outdoors straight away if possible. Although it is advisable to sow seeds in a growing bed, it is not necessary to grow the bearded carnation indoors in warm rooms.
It germinates quite well at normal spring temperatures. However, you should think early on whether you would like to have bearded carnations in your garden, as they only bloom in their second year.
How to sow bearded carnations
From around the end of April you can sow bearded carnations directly outdoors. Sprinkle the seed thinly on the prepared bed and cover only a thin layer of soil over it. Always keep the seeds slightly moist but not wet during germination. If the young plants are around 10 – 15 cm tall, plant them in a sunny location where they should bloom the following year.
The most important things in brief:
- It is best to sow outdoors
- Keep seeds moist during germination
- Transplant young plants by October
- Bearded carnations only bloom in the second year
Tip
It is best to sow bearded carnations directly outdoors. You can do this from April through to the summer.
