Advice For Growing Cornflowers?

Question:

Can anyone give me tips on how to grow cornflowers? I try these every year, following the instructions on the seed packet, but if I'm lucky I get a plant that's about an inch tall. It drives me crazy because I see cornflowers growing wild and lush in ditches, beside railroad tracks, etc. What am I doing wrong? (By the way, this area is always listed as 7a but it never gets that cold. Something to do with the Chesapeake Bay. The climate here is truly 9a.)

Hardiness Zone: 9a

Peanut from VA

Answer:

Peanut,

Are you fertilizing them? Stunted growth can indicate poor soil fertility. Nursery flats are too small to contain a large enough volume of soil to hold adequate nutrients. It's best to fertilize in low doses often.

Here are my tips for starting Cornflower seeds indoors. See how they compare to what you have been doing.

Start seeds about 6 to 8 weeks before you plan to transplant them outdoors. Some varieties need at least 14 hours of light a day to flower, so start them indoors earlier if you want earlier blooms.

Use a new, sterilized soil-less mix to start seeds. Centaureas need darkness to germinate, so cover seeds with _ inch layer of mix.

Keep the growing medium moist (not wet) and temperatures between 60ºF -70ºF. Cover the nursery flats or pots with plastic until the seedlings emerge to maintain humidity.

The National Garden Bureau recommends cutting the strongest plants down to soil level once the seedlings develop their first set of true leaves (usually the second set to emerge). I've never done this, but you might try it with a few and see what happens.

Transplant cornflowers outdoor before they grow taller then 4 inches.

Good luck!

Ellen