Easy From Seed

I often write these words. So many of the plants that I grow were raised from seed. I have been hooked on growing from seed since I was a small boy, encouraged to take an interest in plants by my Grandad.

Aethionema grandiflorum is really easy from seed. Really! All the plants of it in the garden here are self sown, seedlings from a batch I raised perhaps fifteen years ago. The old plants have a gnarled woody base like a tiny shrub, from which new soft growths erupt in Spring. These end in a long raceme of small pink flowers. Each plant may be up to a foot across and about 8 inches high, making a dome of pink when in flower. At one time seedlings filled every gap in the planting resulting in a veritable sea of pink.