The Easy-To-Grow Carnation - Seeds Are All You Need
Carnation seeds are easy to harvest, sow, and grow new plants in short order. Follow these tips to be sure your seeds will produce the flowers you want.
Once carnation flowers are completely dried out, remove the flowers to get the delicate carnation seeds. If it is windy while the flowers are still on stems, cover the flowers with plastic bags so seeds don’t blow away.
Get a big bag, such as a grocery bag, with a large opening at the top. Hold each flower over the bag and crush it between 2 fingers until the seeds come out. Pick out seeds and store in a film canister, plastic bag or plain white envelope. Make sure you are working with only completely dry materials and flowers.
Leave seeds in storage until about February.
To plant seeds, start indoors. Use a simple container such as a small milk carton. Cut slits for water drainage. Use a good quality potting mix (not potting soil), filling the container to 1 inch from the top. Sprinkle seeds on top, cover with a light layer of potting mix, and water lightly. Then place each container in a plastic bag, such as a recycled produce bag to generate humidity. Close the top with a twisty tie.
Wait until an abundance of seedlings have emerged. This should be about 5 days or more depending on the temperature in your home. A warmer place is helpful.
Then take off the plastic. Put containers with seedlings outside for direct sun. Water as much as needed to keep from drying out.
When there are 2 or 3 actual leaves on the plants, repot them using a 6 pack container. When plants are about 6 inches tall plant in the garden in full sun.
Feed with an ornamental all-purpose fertilizer. Water as needed so they do not become dry. Deadhead continually. The carnations are great as cut flowers, just as florists use them. As you are aware if you have ever been to a florist shop, they smell fantastic. The homegrown ones are even more spicy and aromatic than the commercially grown.
In winter, trim plants to about 3 inches. If desired you can transplant to the most desirable location as evidenced by which of your plants were the most productive.
If you want better stems for bouquets, you can brace stems with rods. Another type of carnation seeds, also in the dianthus family, are the smaller but no less pretty type called pinks, or sweet William. Found in any garden department, they are easy to grown, and hardy. Once they get started in the second year, they bloom virtually all year long with little or no care. They can even withstand snow and freezing. Look for them in red, pink, white, and variegated. The sweet William is great along borders, in containers and in rock gardens. Next to the dainty sweet Williams, try the carnations called cinnamon red hots, blushing maidens, double spotty, or fancy knickers.
You can harvest carnation seeds, sow and plant year after year. You might even want to make packets of seeds in artistic containers or envelopes to give away as gifts welcoming spring.