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Features
Five petalled, salmon pink flowers with yellow throats and two ’spurs’ on the reverse. Dark green, heart shaped, opposite leaves provide a good foil for the flowers.
What to use it for
Generally used as an annual in summer bedding or container displays. Can also be used on slopes or in borders. Could be used in cottage style, informal or Mediterranean style gardens.
While strictly speaking this plant is a perennial, it is unlikely to survive the winter in the UK and is generally treated as an annual. If you want to keep it from year to year you’re better off growing it in a container so it can be moved under cover in the winter.
How to look after it
Water regularly in dry periods.
If you intend to keep it as a perennial, protect it from frosts, for example by overwintering it in a greenhouse.
How to prune it
Deadhead regularly or trim lightly after the main flush of flowers to keep it neat and encourage further flowering.
How to propagate it
Take softwood stem-tip cuttings in spring, or in the summer from the re-growth resulting from trimming or deadheading the plant. Protect the cuttings from frost over winter.
Seeds will only be produced by the plant if more than one cultivar or species is grown and are unlikely to come true to type. This does give a good opportunity to have a go at deliberate hybridisation to come up with new variations. Sow seeds at 15˚C, they should flower in the same year.
Common problems
Slugs and snails can be a problem.
Other useful information
Received the Royal Horticultural Society ‘Award of Garden Merit‘.
The plant has the common name ‘twinspur’ due to the two spurs which stick out of the back of the flower, and distinguish it from similar flowers such as Nemesia.
