When we first heard about lisianthus our stubborn streak came out.
"They are hard to germinate"
This (plus other non flattering comments) made us determined to start them and to be successful at growing them from seed.
Spoiler alert...
They are hard to germinate.
The thing about lisianthus is they take their own sweet time... in everything.
Germinating takes about two weeks. That means you spend 14 days staring at dirt wondering when the heck they are going to arrive? Did I do something wrong? Too much water? Not enough water? Too warm? Too cold?
You get the jist.
And finally when they do germinate the speck of green on your dirt is so small you have to pick it up and take a closer look to confirm that in fact you are looking at a small seedling.
That's the just the beginning of this lady taking her good ol' sweet time. They were some of the earliest seedlings we have started (January 9th, 2021 to be exact) and we didn't get our first bloom until August 11th... Let me do the quick calculation for you...
* CALCULATING*
That means we sat looking at green growth for 214 days.
214 days!
Our first season growing lisianthus was also the season where we determined it's best we purchase plugs from a wholesaler and let them sit with the tiny seedlings for a bit. We realized that the real estate in our seedling room was limited and too precious to be taken up by these ladies. Now we order plugs from Farmer Bailey in October and have them shipped to us in early spring!
Have you grown these late ladies?