How to grow lisianthus from seed UK

How I am growing lisianthus from seed & an update after 10 days

I am a sucker for flower farming videos. I think there is an overlap between flower farms and the traditional english cottage garden. Both are a profusion of flowers so naturally as I restore my cottage garden I am drawn to flower farming videos.

These flower farmer don't half love their lisianthus though and I was slow to come round. I have often scorned lisianthus flowers so often seen still and uninspiring in supermarket bouquets but these flower farmers, especially you ones over the pond in the States and Canada, have opened my eyes to some of the more beautiful varieties. Since the vase life is great and I have seen these beautiful new varieties I thought I'd give them a go and since many of the flower farmers Grow their Lisianthus from Seed I immersed myself in their videos (as if I needed an excuse)

I bought 2 packets and that is it. Quite restrained for me I must say. And armed with all the warnings about how difficult they are and even if you are successful how slow they are, I set about sowing them.

I used my typical mixture of seed starting compost. My home made version which consists of about half and half good quality compost and builders sharp sand (yes I know but it's so cheap!) all this moistened and seived to a fine tilth. Then it was time to open the seed packets...

... and here's where things got a bit tricky. The seeds I bought here in the UK had a chalky coating (lisanthus seeds are so tiny they come pelleted) the chalk however had been crush and was a dust so I couldn't tell what was seed and what was just chalk dust so I had low expectations but distributed the chalk dust seed mixture on the soil. I had hoped to place them at even spacings but that was impossible once there was nothing but dust.

Anyhow to cut a long story short I kept them on a heat mat in my garage and under some fairly rudimentary grow lights and kept them damp but not soggy. Mostly watering them from below. I sowed them (or rather chucked them) onto the compost on the 7th and Feb and was only just considering discarding them yesterday ( I was keen to grow something more productive on the heat mat) when I saw signs of life. Today is only the 18th so 2 have germinated in 11 days which I think is fast for lisianthus.

So now I will keep them on the mat and just cultivate a little more patience to go with these difficult beasts. If you want to see a quick update video showing the proof of life check out my video below on How to grow lisianthus from seed UK