Oh they sound just right. The entire plant is made up of little stems and leaves. Give them time and they'll get bigger! Mine bloomed the first year from WS seeds.

I'm glad to hear that, I have little ones too this year.

me too.
I planted them in HOS.
I'm looking forward to them.

I only sowed one container and 4 seedlings are up. They are very tiny. I thought they needed more sun so I moved them a week ago. Still not sure where to plant them. It's amazing how small some things start out.

Last year I only germinated a few seeds. This photo was taken yesterday. I wintersowed three more milk jugs that I planted two days ago. Great germination this year. Next year this spot will be a cloud of blue.

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Don

Thanks for the pic Don, I think I can definitely fit more of those in my garden. It's good to know what the plant looks like.

Mine look like Don's picture. I just let them self seed. Don't bother to WS them.

Thanks for the help, everybody. I had thought the plant would get much larger, so that picture is a big help. Looks like putting them close together is the way to go!

They certainly are beautiful flowers, aren't they?

Mine also bloomed the first year from seed (last year). They are blooming much more and earlier this year. The plants got to be good-sized last year. They get woody stems and are pretty bushy. They stayed fairly well evergreen for me this past winter, and I cut them back pretty hard in late winter because they were looking tatty.

I have mine in full sun and full morning sun with some afternoon shade. All have done well. Got a couple self-seeded ones this spring, but not overwhelming.

The first year mine stayed very thin and small but had some bloom. They are larger this year but still a small clump so far. Maybe will be a nice sized clump by fall.

vvesper, do you amend your soil? I'm wondering if yours growing into a big clump is because you have a longer season or because your soil was full of the "goof stuff" for plants.

Here are a few pics of my 2 yr old Blue Flax. They are much more lush this year than their first year which had only a few blooms.

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The beds mine were planted in last year were new beds. I laid thick newspaper over sod (my natural soil is red clay), then put composted dirt from the city water treatment plant over that (in fall of 2008). After my little plants were in (early 2009), I mulched with shredded hardwood, which has broken down alot since then. I will say the city compost was pretty good stuff, though I won't use it on veggie beds.

I also planted out HOS, so my clumps probably have more than one plant in them. The long growing season probably helped, as did all the rain we got last year - about 12 inches more than normal for the year.

We'll see how my seedlings this year do!

If your nice clump is an HOS, then I'll leave my little flax seeds close together. I'm excited about blue flowers this year!

Beautiful flowers, I can't wait to see mine take off, they have been little for a long time now.

I got my seeds from Vera several years ago and I could have sworn she told me to plant them out as individual plants. My memory is that she said they did not like to be transplanted and that they would have multiple stems once they matured. Mine are linum lewisii. I need to upload my new pictures to photobucket before I can post them. Here is a picture from last year (I think this was the second year but might be the third)

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Becky

No one told me one way or the other on individual plant or HOS. I have read that you're better off to start from seed than try to divide them, though. I don't think I have alot of plants per clump, but probably at least 2-3. Some of the seedlings probably didn't make it. I probably would have tried to transplant individuals, but it was my first year ws, and I sowed too heavy. I have a couple individuals that self-seeded this year. We'll see if they perform differently. My guess is that the longer growing season made a bigger difference than anything else in how mine did last year - we didn't have a hard frost until quite late.

Mine are very small, planted from seed this year.
Not growing too fast.
I don't suppose I can expect something like Ramazz's beauty this year?

Not this year, at least not from my experience. But be patient and you will have something to get excited about next year.

Becky

Musing over the blue flax behavior I discovered there are at least two blue flax plants:

Linum perenne is a perennial

L. usitatissimum is an annual

I cannot find pictures or descriptions that show the difference - other than setting around looking at them until next year which isn't all that bad in my opinion.

There's also Linum lewisii, a perennial, as well. I searched the web and one site said the only apparent difference between the two perennials is the length of the stylus inside the flower. Other than that their blooms and foliage are identical.

deanna_in_nh Thu, May 6, 10 at 12:17

I searched the web and one site said the only apparent difference between the two perennials is the length of the stylus inside the flower. Other than that their blooms and foliage are identical.

Good work. That is more information than I found. I asked on another forum too.

Great pics-thanks! I'm really looking forward to these now-I got my first sprouts yesterday!