This is the first installment in my newest flowers series “The Dairy Barn Fav Flowers” that I introduced over on my Instagram page and the lovely flower to kick it off is - Stock.
Stock was a new to me variety last year, I picked up a last minute packet of seeds to try with one of my final seed orders, you know one of those impulse purchases, near the register!
And then proceeded to plant those poor little seeds all wrong… I planted them too late so they bloomed late, their stems were short, but I took one sniff and I was hooked!! I didn’t even complain that this batch was short because that meant I got to enjoy most of them myself, simply because they wouldn’t fit into a bouquet. It’s deliciously spicy scent still has me dreaming of spring and I am determined to figure them out so I will always be able to look forward to Stock blooming in the spring! This year I picked up a new mix that comes in a beautiful range of colors, as well as a “vintage brown” that was recommended to me last season.
Stock is part of a group of flowers known as “cool season hardy annuals” or a “cool flowers” if you are familiar with Lisa’s teachings. That essentially means this lovely little plant not only likes the cold weather of early spring, but actually thrives in it and NEEDS it to bloom to its fullest potential!
Part of the reason I started the series with stock is because I just started my first succession of seeds yesterday! They will sprout and grow into little seedlings on the seed starting shelf in my living room and be planted out into the flower beds as early as 8 weeks BEFORE our last frost date (here in Idaho that is around the middle of March). They will get planted super close together (4-6 inches) because they are a single stem plant meaning 1 seed will produce, 1 plant, which will produce 1 flower. Other varieties in our series are much more prolific but we will talk about those later. I have a couple different varieties of stock growing this year to experiment and see what will grow best for our climate and from there we will go into narrowing which colors we like best and will continue to grow. It is amazing how many aspects there are to consider when planting seeds - color, bloom time, stem length, form, you name it! And I LOVE researching and getting nerdy with flower planning details!
Check out what is next in The Dairy Barn FAV Flowers series by clicking on the link below!