I have grown these flowers from seed for the first time this year and they are coming on quite well. However, I am surprised (and slightly disappointed) that all the flowers seem to be purple! I thought it was supposed to be mix of colours.

Some of the plants haven't flowered yet. Has anyone else on this forum grown these plants? If so have you got a mix of colours? Are the other colours slower to flower?

They look and smell delightful, but I had hoped for more variety, particularly because I have an awful lot of them!

I wanted to put this message back to the top, because I am still hoping that a stock-growing gardener might see it. The flowers are doing very nicely now, but they are all still purple (including the ones that have come out in the last few days). I read somewhere recently that white is the most common colour usually.

Do the growing conditions affect the colour? Could it have anything to do with the soil or wet weather?

Thanks in advance...

Honeysuckle XX

I wouldn't have thought that growing conditions could change flower colour to that extent.

It is possible that the different flower colours are linked with liking for slightly different conditions for germination, and you managed to pick the conditions that favoured the purples.

Thank you Kay. You might be on the right track actually. A couple of weeks after I transplanted the seedlings a large number of them died very suddenly while the remaining ones thrived. There was nothing in between.

Do you think the dead ones were the other colours? If so does anyone have any ideas what I could do next year to help the other colours survive.

I understand that wild Matthiola Incana is purple. Could this be the reason why the purple ones are hardier?

Transplanting always damages the root system a bit. It seems to kill quickly - ie if they survive the transplanting they thrive. No way of telling which colours didn't survive.

It is possible that you were sent duff seed, ie wild-type M incana. Try contacting the seed supplier.

I once grew a packet of Lychnis coronaria 'alba' only to find that they were the nasty magenta colour and not the white ones.

Thank you for your reply.

I bought the seed from a reputable seed supplier. I have done as you suggest and sent them an email. I will give an update when I receive their reply.

Honeysuckle

There was great excitement in the garden this evening. I have got a white one!

The other 80-odd are still purple though...

Honeysuckle

On 15/07/2012 20:28, Honeysuckle wrote:
Honeysuckle;963662 Wrote:
Thank you for your reply.

I bought the seed from a reputable seed supplier. I have done as you
suggest and sent them an email. I will give an update when I receive
their reply.

Honeysuckle

There was great excitement in the garden this evening. I have got a
white one!

The other 80-odd are still purple though...

Honeysuckle

I seem to remember that with stocks grown from seed, the most vigorous
ones tend to be all one colour, you have to grow on the weaker seedlings
to get variety.
It's quite normal to go for the strongest and to discard the weaker ones.

Hi David

What you say makes sense. I have still have some of the weaker ones in the greenhouse. I might try planting them out to see what happens.

I have had a reply from the seed supplier. They have given me a voucher to spend in their online store. Unfortunately, they haven't suggested any reasons why most of the flowers are purple...

Honeysuckle