Sweet William

I actually tried to grow Sweet William last year. I sowed the seed, the plant came up and grew quite well but never flowered. It then didn’t die back over Winter. So I left it in the ground, through all the snow and frost and wet. Then in early Spring it started to grow again and now I have row upon row of beautiful flowers, poised to open at the first sign of sun.

On further reading I found that if you plant from seed in year one then you will actually get flowers in year two. Doh! should have realised that last year. But in any case I’m delighted with my raft of free cut flowers. Expect Sweet William in every room in the house very soon!

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10 Comments on “Sweet William”

  1. oo excellent. i love sweet williams. i’ve not seen any in garden centres so i was guessing growing from seed was the way to go. do post pics of the flowers when they’re open :)

  2. Love love love Sweet Williams! Smell so lovely and they’re so prolific. *sigh* another thing I need to plant then… where oh where am I going to have the space to put them though… *sigh*

  3. I did exactly the same, sow from seed, they grew, I planted them out and then my mum said oh well you will have flowers next year and I said YER WHAT! she said yeh the flowers only come next year!!
    But I left them out in all that snow, they came on again once the weather warmed up and now I have just been told they too have flowers spikes on……I miss my garden when I work away :((
    Just like lupins worth the wait I hope!!

  4. Yeah, they’re biennials, like forget-me-not and other such. Worth the wait though.

  5. Biennials are really good to grow – wallflowers, sweet williams (I have a lovely dark variety called Sooty) forget me nots, sweet rocket, foxgloves etc. Sow them now for next year. Most of them are really easy, and will seed themselves around all over the place, so once you’ve got them, you’ve got them forever!

  6. I planted Sweet William initially because I have a son named William who was so excited that there was a flower with HIS name! I also started it from seed, and my William diligently helped with watering. Every fall I cover the Sweet William patch with straw and they come up fuller and stronger each year. Last year, I scattered a large seed packet of wildflowers and, this year, have a beautiful assortment of Sweet William growing in this patch. There’s white, pink-and-white, pink, and a beautiful deep-red. I’m considering transplanting some of these to the Sweet William patch to give it some variety, although they do look nice where they’re at. Ah – decisions, decisions… ;D

  7. Same here sowed the seed last year, the plants survived the snow and cold too, have just cut my first lot of Sweet William and they are sitting in a vase right next to me as I type this! :-)

  9. I was lucky to be given some plants last year and the first flowers have just appeared this week.

  10. I see they are marked as biennial plants, but will they live on beyond 2 years and flower in the next years?