Germination has not been a problem, but I have not had luck getting them to grow from about an inch high. I think I started them too early with too little light and too little heat. Will try again later in the spring. I have grown them from plugs with out problems. Al

Growing pentas from seed is not difficult, but there are some very important variables. First, these seeds require light in order to germinate, and the germination flat needs to be heated to at least 75 (my soil thermostat turns off at 78).

It might take as much as 2 to 3 weeks for germination to occur; count on another 4 weeks until you can transplant the seedlings to their individual cell packs or pots. How quickly the plants grow after that depends entirely on your fertilization, temperature and sunlight. The sunnier and warmer...the better.

Under typical winter/spring germination conditions, it can take 16 plus weeks from sowing to blooming. If the conditions are bright and toasty, it can take as little as 10 to 12 weeks.

Maureen,

I bought seed (which are pelleted) and only had one seed germinate. The little plant appears healthy but is very slow growing. At this rate of growth, I think it will be a long time before it gets big enough to set blooms.

I've had excellent luck with taking tip cuttings and rooting them and you would see much quicker blooms using this method.

Late last summer I picked up 6 potted Penta's that were on the sale table at my local nursery to use for practice cuttings. Naturally they were the left over's from the season and pretty poor looking plants. I repotted and fed them and they quickly grew into lovely plants. The hummers and butterflies love the blooms. I took tip cuttings to overwinter. They rooted in little mini greenhouse's made out of 2 liter cola bottles and the plants are now planted in my garden. If you can find a mature plant to use as a mother plant, I suspect that would be a quicker way to grow blooming plants.

Mary

I have tried as Mary has, with poor results. My unheated greenhouse gets too cool at night I think. My guess is the minimum temperature would be about 60 degrees and some nights the greenhouse gets down to about 45. Al

You three have provided really great info here. I am going to print it out and file. Thank you!