Straw flowers are small eye-catchers in the garden. In addition, you can easily multiply seeds. We'll show you how.
Straw flowers bloom almost all summer long and enchant us with their variety of colors. But that's not the only reason why flowers are so popular with us. The fact that they are easy to dry and that we can enjoy them for a long time means that more and more hobby gardeners are planting them. If you already have immortelle, you can propagate them from seeds. If you do it right, he althy, blooming plants will be gracing your garden or balcony next summer.
How to propagate everlasting flowers from seeds
» Step 1 - Harvest and store seeds
The easiest way to propagate everlasting flowers is by using their seeds. You can either buy the seeds in a garden store or harvest them yourself. A single adult plant will provide you with a more than adequate amount. Proceed as follows when harvesting:
After the immortelle have withered, cut the fruiting bodies completely off the plant and pluck out the narrow seeds one by one. Choose a wind-protected location so that the seeds do not fly away with the first gust of wind. Store the immortelle seeds in a cool and dry place over the winter, for example in a sealed jar. Make sure the storage location does not drop close to freezing, as everlasting seeds are not frost hardy.
» Step 2 - Grow straw flowers from March
It's a good idea to start with helichrysum in the house or apartment. You can start doing this from the beginning of March, giving the plants a head start in the growing season. Your reward are stronger and more floriferous specimens. And this is how it's done:
Place four seeds in a medium pot of potting soil. Since helichrysum is one of the light germinators, only cover the seeds with a wafer-thin layer of the substrate. The ambient temperature should be 16 to 18 degrees Celsius. Keep the seeds moist, but don't overwater. Neither drought nor standing moisture offer good germination conditions. Use for light, regular wetting onbest a plant sprayer:
» Step 3 - Thin out straw flowers:
After a period of about two weeks you will see the first cotyledons. Wait a while to see which specimens are doing best. Once the helichrysums are two inches tall, remove any puny plants.
» Step 4 - Release straw flowers in May:
Put the strong and he althy everlasting flowers outside after the ice saints in the second half of May. Make sure that the flowers have enough space to reach out to the side. The planting distance should be at least 30 centimeters. You must observe this distance rule in particular for species that grow like shrubs.
The straw flowers that were brought forward then begin to bloom as early as June. If you take good care of them, the flowers will delight you with their blooms well into October. You can read everything you should consider when caring for it in our article Straw flowers: sowing and caring for annual summer flowers.