Celosia question...why do the ones I plant die and get these instead?

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

Every spring I plant celosia - which have usually done well - but the past several years the nice small ones I plant, instead of growing, tend to fizzle out and instead these big ones come up - not always even close to where I planted the small ones. Is there such a thing as 'wild celosia'? Or do the ones I plant somehow cast off spores or whatever that take root and turn into these monstrosities? OR even though the ground in this bed gets heavily moved around each spring, are the seeds (is there such a thing relative to celosia?) still in the ground and find a way to keep coming back every year?

I'm not complaining from the standpoint of enjoying the additional color, but these things sort of take over the entire bed and overshadow other annuals I've planted. They are really a bit too large for the overall scheme of how I plan this bed. Sometimes I dig them out and move them to other places, but this year they came up in those places I've typically moved them to in past years - which would seem to support the theory of self-seeding. (?)

Just thought I'd ask about it. First picture shows two of the small ones I put in, and the 2nd picture shows what it eventually turns into. The colors of these big ones are not even what I planted but rather tend to all be shades of red/orange. I plant yellow but that color never seems to be present in these big ones.

You can see I also plant coleus, begonia, etc. but they get lost among the wild celosia forest!

Wonder what would happen to the celosia that I plant if I'd keep removing these others as they start to pop up? Have never actually tried that.

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Comments (5)

Paul MI
6 years ago
Your Celosia reseeded. They do that. :-)

I have found that Celosia grown from seed usually grow far larger than the plants you by from the stores. (Had some last year that were about 3ft tall -- but I was fine with that.) The ones you by in the store are stunted. I believe I read somewhere that it is due to their having become root bound and forced into bloom at such a small size.

You can always try trimming the volunteers back -- particularly when they are younger plants. While small, they are easy enough to dig up and relocate. Try using them as a backdrop in sunny location.

Oddly enough, mine (all seed grown volunteers) are staying small this year. Don't know why. have their pots -- I live in an apt -- in the same location as last year. I had a huge number of babies so gave a lot of them away. Those I gave a friend of mine are all 3X bigger than the ones I kept. No idea why.
three4rd47
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Paul...thanks so much. Must confess to not having been familiar with the term "volunteer" in a botanical sense. So you're saying these volunteers came up via reseeding from the ones I just put in or even going back to previous seasons?
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Paul MI
6 years ago
Previous season is most likely.
three4rd47
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Resurrecting this older thread cause I have another question. When it is referred to celosia as having "reseeded", does that mean that the volunteers that are coming up this summer are from seeds that wound up in the ground after last year's plantings? Seems odd since I work the ground around quite vigorously each spring before planting, and yet these 'volunteers' seem to always come up around the same places. Or do celosia disperse that many seeds? Once again, the smaller ones I got at the nursery aren't doing much, but instead a whole bunch of volunteers (all essentially the same color) have come up and pretty much start to choke out other annuals. Maybe next year I'll try pulling them as they start to pop up and see if that'll encourage more growth of what I buy and plant each spring.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
2 years ago
It is a copious reseeder and each flower has the ability to produce thousands of seeds. And the seeds can remain viable for up to 5 years.