Select Seeds News: Stuff our suggestion box - we're planning for 2010!
In this issue:
Short-Day/Long-Day Sun, Summer and your Flowers
Greetings!
A new season of sowing seeds has arrived, check out our hardy annuals on sale now!
As we regard our flower garden successes and failures, we approach mysteries, too. Why did that flower never get to the height it did in previous years? Why is a supposedly very double flower blooming with solitary single forms? (See our article on day length and flowers below.)
No matter how long one has gardened, there is always much to discover, and joy in the journey.
Please join us.
Cordially,
Short-Day/Long-Day Sun, Summer and your Flowers
The sizzling hot summer sun changing to the soft kiss of the waning fall sun affects the height and flowering time of many of our favorite flowers.
It has been found that rather than the length of the daylight time, it is really the length of the night that triggers flower formation.
Short-day plants grow stems and foliage when the days are long and the nights are short. They flower when the day-length starts to shorten and the nights are longer, as in the late summer. The critical number of nighttime hours varies by variety.
Some examples of short-day plants are Cosmos,
Zinnia and Snow on the Mountain.
That is why double-flowered cosmos, such as our bestseller 'Rose Bon-Bon', starts flowering with sporadic single flowers early in summer and by late summer, full frilly heads of flowers are produced.
Also, if you sow these seeds once summer is advanced rather than in late spring, they will switch from growing vegetatively to initiating flowers before they have grown ample foliage, resulting in a stunted plant with few flowering branches.
Long-day plants grow stems and foliage when the days are short and the nights are long. They flower when the day-length starts to lengthen, and the nights are shorter, as in early summer.
Petunia is a good example of this as are all biennials.
Many flowers are day-neutral, such as Love in a Mist and Sunflower, to name two. They will flower
when they are mature, and conditions are right no matter what the length of day or night.
Temperature also affects flowering in plants - but this subject is better left until next time....
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