Matthiola incana Appleblossom | Traditional Field-grown Column Stocks

Sweetly scented, pale pink packed blooms, many of which will be fully double, on strong, single stems. A cottage garden staple, stocks have long been popular both for bedding and for providing cut flowers, 'Appleblossom pink' would also look stunning in a dark or metallic pot as part of a contemporary scheme. A hardy biennial when grown in summer for flowering early in the season of the following year, it is most commonly grown as an annual from a sowing in early spring. Growing instructions: Fill trays with good quality compost and lightly cover the seeds. Water and grow on at 13-18°C. Prick out seedlings with a green/yellow colour and discard the dark green ones which will produce only single flowers. Pot on when they have put on their first true leaves and then harden off before planting out at 20-30cm intervals after the frosts have passed. Seeds sown in autumn and overwintered in a frost-free frame, will produce plants which will flower earlier in the year, than those sown in spring. Sow: October to November or February to March Flowering: June to October