For all of us who miss our Snapdragons during the warmer months, Linaria comforts us with pea-like blooms in bright colors! These lovely upright stems bring pollinators into the garden and make delightful cutflowers for the vase. Linaria is an annual we should all be growing, and dwarf Licilia makes it possible to bring it into patio pots and smaller spaces.
Known as False Snapdragon (or by its older, less attractive name of Toadflax!), Linaria is a super quick-growing, open-pollinated annual that will self-sow where it is happy. The seeds are easy to direct-sow after all danger of frost, and once they germinate, you will see the first blooms just about 6 weeks later. Why can't everything in the garden be so quick and easy?
These flowers are simply gorgeous, a mix of azure-blue and clear white. The long stems are lovely for cutting, and the petals surround sweet nectar beloved of bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Expect Licilia Azure to reach just 18 inches high and up to 12 inches wide, but packed with flowering stems! No wonder it won a 2014 Fleuroselect Award, Europe's highest honor for a flowering seed!
The show begins in late spring in most climates, and will continue all summer if the flowers are promptly cut or deadheaded. In northern, short-summer climates, Licilia Azure is a plant for full sun; farther south and west, it prefers a bit of afternoon shade, or even a dappled mix all day.
Wonderful for dry or poor soil, Licilia will reseed itself freely, so you might want to begin with a generous planting in an open area and watch it return for many years! Be sure to leave the seeds on the plant to scatter themselves in your garden for next year! Pkt is 100 seeds.
Heirloom Seeds are open-pollinated -- they are not hybrids. You can gather and save heirloom seed from year to year and they will grow true to type every year, so they can be passed down through generations. To be considered an heirloom, a variety would have to be at least from the 1940's and 3 generations old (many varieties are much older -- some 100 years or more!).
Hybrid seed are the product of cross-pollination between 2 different parent plants, resulting in a new plant/seed that is different from the parents. Unlike Heirloom seed, hybrid seed need to be re-purchased new every year (and not saved). They usually will not grow true to type if you save them, but will revert to one of the parents they were crossed with and most likely look/taste different in some way.
For all of us who miss our Snapdragons during the warmer months, Linaria comforts us with pea-like blooms in bright colors! These lovely upright stems bring pollinators into the garden and make delightful cutflowers for the vase. Linaria is an annual we should all be growing, and dwarf Licilia makes it possible to bring it into patio pots and smaller spaces.
Known as False Snapdragon (or by its older, less attractive name of Toadflax!), Linaria is a super quick-growing, open-pollinated annual that will self-sow where it is happy. The seeds are easy to direct-sow after all danger of frost, and once they germinate, you will see the first blooms just about 6 weeks later. Why can't everything in the garden be so quick and easy?
These flowers are simply gorgeous, a mix of azure-blue and clear white. The long stems are lovely for cutting, and the petals surround sweet nectar beloved of bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Expect Licilia Azure to reach just 18 inches high and up to 12 inches wide, but packed with flowering stems! No wonder it won a 2014 Fleuroselect Award, Europe's highest honor for a flowering seed!
The show begins in late spring in most climates, and will continue all summer if the flowers are promptly cut or deadheaded. In northern, short-summer climates, Licilia Azure is a plant for full sun; farther south and west, it prefers a bit of afternoon shade, or even a dappled mix all day.
Wonderful for dry or poor soil, Licilia will reseed itself freely, so you might want to begin with a generous planting in an open area and watch it return for many years! Be sure to leave the seeds on the plant to scatter themselves in your garden for next year! Pkt is 100 seeds.
Heirloom Seeds are open-pollinated -- they are not hybrids. You can gather and save heirloom seed from year to year and they will grow true to type every year, so they can be passed down through generations. To be considered an heirloom, a variety would have to be at least from the 1940's and 3 generations old (many varieties are much older -- some 100 years or more!).
Hybrid seed are the product of cross-pollination between 2 different parent plants, resulting in a new plant/seed that is different from the parents. Unlike Heirloom seed, hybrid seed need to be re-purchased new every year (and not saved). They usually will not grow true to type if you save them, but will revert to one of the parents they were crossed with and most likely look/taste different in some way.