I continue to require eye-candy this winter, and here’s a dose for today. Salpiglossis ‘Stained Glass’ (Salpiglossis sinuata) is a beautiful annual flower from Chile that derives its name from the hand-painted quality of its blooms. I first grew it from seed a few years back and have been considering it for this year’s garden.
Growing the seed took no special effort, I simply started them indoors early, around the same time that I sowed my tomatoes, and transferred the transplants outdoors around the same time.
It self-sowed again the following season, but those plants did not have the chance to develop properly into maturity. Consequently, the flowers were anemic and not-quite-right so it’s one of those annuals that you really need to plan ahead for rather than relying on its self-propagating nature if you want to see lots and lots of full blooms all summer long.
See also, Chocolate Royale Salpiglossis.
If you’re looking to buy a pack, my original seed came from Renee’s. The pack they sell is mixed, so you can’t be guaranteed to get this particular colour. However, I found that all of the seed I sowed resulted in the same lavender/blue/purple hue.
Those gorgeous colorful flowers are nature’s work of art.
Brenda
this beautiful flower reminds me that spring is right around the corner, even though we are buried in snow. icicles hang from the roof, but have melted a little today. even to think of spring is a blessing
Gorgeous. Is it easy to find its seeds?
How amazingly beautiful. Over the past two years I have started to propogate from seed so this is now on my list of projects for this year. Thank you for sharing.
great colour combo – love the high-contrast detailed centres on these – aAAGGGHhh – when is winter gonna be over
NEVER! Thankfully there is sun today and that gives me hope.