I have several lots of pansies allegedly germinating for the last 2 weeks. I have black beauty and Swiss Giant - however not one is showing its pretty face. As an experiment I had the Swiss outside in a propagator in my mini greenhouse and the Black Beauty in the propagator in the airing cupboard but nothing.
I've had a quick google and a few sites are telling me to use some kind of soil-less material to germinate them on - what the heck is that?!
Any ideas?
Ps - having same problem with Petunias! First time growing flowers from seeds, think I should have stuck to veg!
how deep have you sowed, posie..I covered small seeds with vermiculite and got some good results, also mixed some with the compost to open it up a bit :)
I don't think they're very deep - I honestly can't remember though. What's vermiculite? and where would I get some?? This gardening lark is hard work!!!
it's white, fluffy stuff, just covers the seeds but lets light through, I got some from b&q..also there's perlite, same thing really..I think it helps hold water..if they're really tiny, I just don't cover them, stick a plastic bag over and put them on the windowsill..I grew granny's bonnets like that, last year ..hate tiny seeds ;D
hmmm, may have to take a trip to garden centre today then, flippin plants more pampered than I am!! Lobelia seeds have to be the worst, mind you, they're not germinating either!!! rofl - i give up!
can't cope with lobelia, my finger and thumb on my right hand don't meet properly, I'll leave you to imagine what transplanting's like ;D
anyway, there's still time for them to emerge, I think..lots of luck, let's know what happens :)
I worked in a nursery pricking out plants into trays ,and with the lobelia we used to take a small clump and plant it like that . its impossible to plant in one by one.
I hope that helps .
Bridgehouse
Everything has now been vermiculited to within an inch of its life this afternoon!!!
Pansies need light to germinate and should therefore be sown on the surface.
As an option they can be covered with a light covering of vermiculite as this lets the light through.
See here; http://tinyurl.com/2eoocj for cultural information and here for an example of using vermiculite; http://tinyurl.com/yv8u2f i.e. the second example using the half tray.
Thanks for that TeeGee, think what I've done wrong is not to shade the seeds when germinating, your site is very very informative.
Some of mine got buried and some didn't; I checked while I was on the allotment today, and the ones I can see are just beginning to germinate.
Yay! They've started germinating - albeit a bit sporadically, but the Black Beauty ones are starting (the original ones that I was having problems with). The Swiss Giant however are proving extremely stubborn! ;D
That's really useful info - I've been frustrated by pansies refusing to germinate. Will try and remember this one!
Charlotte
Had about a 60% germination rate with the Black Beauty ones now. The Swiss Giant have done absolutely nothing, am wondering if maybe the packet was a duff one. Vermiculite seems to have done the trick!