composted manure.. plus 20-20-20.. sounds like overkill for tiny seedlings...

but i doubt it would affect flower color ...

what was your seed source???? in other words.. how do you know the color is not genetic???

ken

Were the seedlings in bloom when you bought them? I'm guessing they were not. There are celosia varieties that I would call dull in color. It's likely that your plants are of that seed strain, or that a different, dull, strain got mixed into the original batch of not dull varieties. Either way, you can either live with them or replant. Celosia are very very easy to grow from seed and in heat, they start blooming very fast.

You might want to be a little more patient. The plumosa tend to change hues as they open and fully expand. I am growing a 'purple' variety this year and thought the same thing as they started blooming on still young, short plants. Well in the last week they've come into their own and the dull, reddish mauve is becoming a lovely deep purple.

Dear GW mates,

Here are some recent pics which i took this morning 6:30am :

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@ donnabaskets: I had observed the seedlings while purchasing, none of them were blooming at that time, I have read that if the Celosia seedling start blooming early due to stress, they will never make nice plants and bloom in future, as you can see in my pics that they are healthy and not stressed.

@ calliope: I will try to be more patient, lets see what happens...!!!

Thank You so much mates, for your replies and advices.

Izhar

any more views on the these pics??

I see you don't have them mulched. Portulacca likes hot and dry conditions. While Celosia likes the heat it also likes moist conditions.

Your plants are stressed and that's why the faded colors. Give them a good watering and mulch them

Thank You for your advice, I will surely put some some mulch around them... I have bag of shredded coconut husk.. will it suffice as mulch or should i add some thing else?

Izhar

That will do fine--anything will that will keep the ground moist

... And hey, even if they don't brighten up, just tell yourself those colours aren't "dull" - they're "subtle"!

(I'm very jealous of people who can grow these - I've tried several times as they're so easy from seed, but they get eaten to the ground by slugs and snails, as do my Amaranthus.)

Hi Ornata, believe me when i planted the tiny seedlings i used to go with flash light every night in search of those critters... just lost 2-3 seedling due to them... and someone told me that the intensity of flower color could be increased by using more Potassium containing fertilizer, I am verifying this by using my orchid bloom fertilizer on some of them, lets see what happens..

Happy gardening..

Izhar

Last Saturday I went to the nursery from where I bought the seedlings of Celosia to get advise on how to treat my plants and I saw that all of his own celosia crop was same as mine also some of his plants were taller than 2 feet !!!

The person over there was not optimistic regarding sales of this particular variety and told me that it never occurred in past. I requested him to show me the original packing of the seeds, the package clearly mentioned "Celosia Kimono F2 separate colors", the case is solved.

So mates these are plants which you will get if you save the seeds of F1 Celosia Kimono.

Although I didn't asked a compensation but he gave me a seedling pot each of Rudbeckia 'Autumn Colors' and Gomphrena globosa 'Purple'... :)

@ oilpainter, I have mulched them anyways with the coconut husk i had.. :)

Izhar

Izhar, thanks for this helpful post. I'm in Australia (about US Zone 4 - subtropical) and bought some celosia seedlings from the local nursery. THey were BRIGHT and fabulous. I went away over xmas holidays and left them in someone else's "care". I arrived home to find them completely flat in bone-dry soil (they're in pots) AND all their vibrant colour gone-gone-gone... dirty browns instead. I clipped off all the burnt leaf ends, watered them, gave them seaweed solution and they seem to have perked up (they're upright!) but i've not yet been able to get their colour back completely. I'll take this suggestion and try the orchid fertilizer, or maybe some potash...and will report back on whether this was able to enliven the colours back to their original vibrancy...