Stock or Matthiola incana Cherry Red seeds
This variety of deep red Matthiola certainly lives up to its name, cherry red! The long flower stems give off a very heavy but delicious scent. If you walk around the garden and get close to the flowers you can already smell them. If you pick just a few stems for your bouquet, the whole room fills with a wonderful floral scent. Definitely a good addition to your personal cut flower garden!

Planting information to grow Matthiola or stock cherry red from seed:
Plant type: hardy annual
Height: 60-80 centimeters
Position: full sun
Start: in Spring
Germination: 7-14 days, 18-20°C don’t exclude light
Number of days until plants bloom: 90-100 days
Distance between the plants: 20 to 30 centimeters
Pinching: no
Number of seeds per pack: 50

How do I grow Matthiola plants from seed?
To start the stocks from seeds we sow one seed per cell in a seed tray. Only lightly cover the seeds (they need light to germinate) and place them in a warm and light spot. The seeds are germinating within a few days. Once the seeds have germinated you grow them in cooler conditions. Preferably around the 10°C. This can be outside in a propagator in spring or in a greenhouse or polytunnel as long as the weather conditions are mild. The seedlings grow fast, therefore we don’t start them too early in spring, not before the beginning of March.

Never pinch (cut out the tip to support branching) because the plants grow one large main stem filled with the most fantastic scenting flowers. If you harvested the stem as cut-flower the plants can generate smaller shoots. The smaller stems are more ornamental and often not useful as a cut flower.
Harvest the stems when about one-third or half of the flowers have opened. Just a few stems of stock in a bouquet will fill the entire room with a lovely floral scent. The stems have a vase life of at least 10 days.

Stocks are also a great addition to the garden. The flowers will bloom for a very long time. The long spikes of flowers mix well with other shaped plants in the border. The stems can get very heavy. Some support is recommended especially with heavy wind or air. You could sow twice to extend the flowering season.