Grow Stock Flowers

Stock flowers, or Matthiola incana, are known for their fragrant, spicy scent. These annual flowers come in a range of colors and are usually grown from seed. They require temperatures below 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) to blossom, and they stop flowering by summer, so you should plant the flowers early in the spring or during early autumn, when severe heat is not an issue.

Steps

Planting

1. Choose a sunny location. The plants prefer full sun, but a garden bed with partial sun can work in a pinch. Do not prepare a garden bed in heavy shade.
2. Sow your seeds several times throughout the spring. Begin in early April and sow seeds every two weeks through April and May. By sowing your seeds in rounds like this, you can enjoy the color and scent of these flowers longer than you would with a single early sowing.
3. Prepare the soil. Ideally, the soil should be amended from the last season. If not, however, you can still amend it now by chopping it up with a rake or garden fork and adding a slow-release granular fertilizer, as well as a well-rotted compost.
   • If you have dense, compact soil, you may also wish to consider mixing in a little garden sand. Coarse garden sand improves the soil's ability to drain.
4. Keep the soil free of weeds and stones. As you rake it up, you should remove any weeds and large stones. Smaller pebbles should not cause any damage, but large stones can present obstacles for developing roots, and weeds can compete with your stock flowers for valuable nutrition.
5. Fill a plastic bottle with silver sand. This sand will be used to mark the areas where you will scatter the seed.
6. Pour the sand out over the soil in straight rows. The rows should be about 7 to 12 inches (18 to 30 cm) apart.
7. Sow the seeds along the line. Thinly sprinkle the seeds over the sandy line, keeping them on the line or as close to the line as possible. By sowing the seeds in organized lines, you will have an easier time sowing additional rows of seeds later in the season.
8. Lightly cover the seeds with soil. You can either sprinkle it over by hand or by using a rake. You only need to use about 1/8 inch (1/3 cm) of light soil.
9. Keep the seeds watered. Use a garden hose or watering can to apply a fine mist or gentle spray of water to the seeds to moisten the soil without washing the seeds away.
10. Sow additional seeds in the early to mid fall. These plants tend to wither in the hot summer months, but since they are quick to flower from seed, you can sow additional seeds in the fall and see more flowers emerge before the winter freeze.

Care

1. Keep the soil moist. The flowers can tolerate slightly dry conditions, but once the soil becomes dry to a depth of 2 inches (5 cm), the flowers likely need another watering. During dry periods, the soil should be lightly watered once or twice a week. If you get rain at least once a week, however, additional watering may not be necessary.
   • Avoid drenching stock flowers. Sopping wet soil leads to soggy roots, and soggy roots lead to unhappy and unhealthy stocks.
2. Remove weeds as soon as you see them. Weeds compete for nutrients, and too many weeds can cause your stock flowers to wither. Yank the weeds up, removing them in their entirety, roots and all. Doing so rids the plant bed of weeds more effectively than merely snipping them off at surface level does.
   • Alternatively, you can apply a light layer of mulch around flowers to help suffocate below-ground weeds before they have the chance to sprout.
3. Deadhead the flowers throughout the season. As the weather warms, the blossoms will begin to wilt. Snip the flowers off just below the head to prevent them from going to seed. Deadheading the flowers also encourages more blossoms to grow before the plant dies off in the heat of the summer.
4. Apply insecticides and pesticides only as necessary. Moths are occasionally attracted to stock flowers, but otherwise, the plants are not especially prone to pest problems.

Tips

• Brompton stocks take longer to develop than just about any other stock variety, and are treated as biennials. They are often planted late in the season and do not blossom until the following season. Most other stock varieties are fast growing, though, and blossom within a few weeks of being sown.

Things You’ll Need

• Rake or garden fork
• Compost
• Fertilizer
• Silver sand
• Plastic bottle
• Garden hose or watering can
• Mulch
• Garden shears
• Pesticides (as needed)

Sources and Citations

See also

• Plant Tritoma
• Harvest Tulips
• Plant Night Blooming Jasmine
• Grow Your Own Bouquet
• Propagate Azaleas
• Care for Peace Lilies
• Grow Tulips
• Care for a Begonia
• Plant Flowers
• Propagate Bougainvillea

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