Late spring and early summer are when to start biennials from seed if you want to enjoy their flowers next year.
For biennials need a whole growing season before they become mature enough to form flowers.
Then after flowering, they usually die or will only struggle along and should therefore be discarded.
As most biennials flower in early summer, you can move annuals or such perennials as chrysanthemums into the space they have occupied.
Canterbury Bells (Campanula Medium)
Among good biennials to grow from seed are Canterbury bells (Campanula medium), which must be started in early summer.
The little seedlings grow very slowly and will not flower the following year unless the plants have reached a good size.
A common complaint to question-and-answer departments is that Canterbury bells and foxglove sometimes do not flower when they are supposed to.
Almost invariably, the reason for this is that the seeds were started too late the previous summer, and the resulting plants were still too small to bloom.
Such plants will usually flower in the third year.
Other Good Biennials For Growing
Other good biennials, with flowers so attractive that once you have seen them, you’ll make biennial-plant growing a regular garden procedure, are the following:
- Foxglove
- Pansy
- Hollyhock (grow the double varieties)
- Forget-me-not (myosotis)
- Mullein (verhascum)
- Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus)