Grow and harvest chard - our best tips!

So check out this lavender blue beauty?! This is a flower that we just love! You probably recognize her from the flower shops - the bet often gets a place in the florists' creations. And it's easy to see why - the beautiful flowers float high on sturdy stems and bring life to the bouquet.

They do just as well in the flowerbed, where they add height and splendor throughout the season. Vädden is an extremely grateful and unassuming flower - it blooms all summer, it can withstand even shadier locations and it is also almost as beautiful as overbloomed when the seed capsule emerges. As an added bonus, it is frost-resistant and can handle temperatures around zero. This makes it also suitable for cut flower cultivations in more northern latitudes that previously had night frosts. With us, the weather plays a completely given role in our cut flower farms year after year!

Gorgeous Fata Morgana in the Grace Bouquet Collection

In New Botanic's assortment you will find three of our favorite varieties. The lavender blue Fama Deep Blue – a perennial weed that is something really special. It has large flowers with ruffled petals that look extremely beautiful in any bouquet. We think it looks extra nice in a combo with other poppy primary colors such as orange and cerise. Check out our Drama Queen Bouquet Collection if you think it sounds nice😊. If you sow the seeds now, it will flower already this year!

Fall weather Fama Deep Blue

The other favorite is Fata Morgana – a weed that looks like a soft pale yellow sun floating in the flower bed and the bouquet. This is a very easy-to-match flower - super nice in combo with pink and blue tones in the Bon Bon Bouquet Collection or why not let it go tone-on-tone with other flowers in the cream milk and lime color scale as in the Grace Bouquet Collection !

Spectacular Fata Morgana

As the icing on the cake, we also have the salmon pink beauty Salmon Rose. Incredibly nice to combine with other flowers in cerisea or pink tones. Feel free to stick some dark leaves in the bouquet as well to give it more attitude.

Magnificent Salmon Rose

Aries is an easy-to-grow crop. Sow your seeds in February-March and you will enjoy early flowering!

Magnificent Salmon Rose

SOW AND HARVEST ARIES

Plant location : Cultivated in the open field/bed, in a pallet collar or larger pot on the balcony in a sunny location (6-7 hours of sun/day - semi-shady location (3-5 hours of sun/day).

Sow the beet indoors in March - then it will have time to flower already in the first year. Place the briquette in lukewarm water and let it swell. Place on a plate or growing tray. Poke down approx. 2 seeds/briquette, cover with a thin layer of coconut fiber.

Mark the seed with marking sticks. Enter variety and date.

Cover the seed with transparent cover with air holes. Tip - use a greenhouse with a plastic lid and place a capillary mat at the bottom which provides an even and good water supply. Place on heating floor or heating mat for extra fast germination.

1-2 WEEKS AFTER SOWING

Give light . When the seed germinates, usually after 5-15 days, it needs light. Remove the plastic and place the seed in a bright and cooler place.

RETRAINING

Repot the plant when it has 4 leaves, to give it more space. Carefully divide the briquette into two parts with 1 plant per part. Water before dividing to reduce the risk of damaging the tender roots. Plant each part in a pot measuring approx. 7x7 cm, which is filled with nutrient-rich planting soil. Plant at the same depth as the plant stood before. Water with lukewarm water. Here, the plants are then allowed to grow before it is time for transplanting. If the plant's growth has stopped, replanting can already be done when it has 2 leaves.

FINAL PLANTING

Harden off the plant when the risk of frost is over, to acclimate it to the outdoor environment. Start with 1 hour/day and gradually increase the time outside. Avoid direct sunlight which is too strong for the young leaves. After a week or so, it is ready for a permanent life outdoors.

Plant out the plant in its place, for example in a flower bed or pallet collar, with 25 cm between each plant and 25 cm between each row. Plant in well-fertilized soil. Be sure to support the flower so that it comes to its full potential. Fertilizer water a few times during the season.

HARVEST FESTIVAL

Harvest and enjoy about 4 months after sowing. Aries is very productive – the more you pick, the more it blooms. Therefore, make sure to continuously pick flowers throughout the season to maximize the harvest. The perennial is also frost-resistant and can survive a few nights around zero. A good summer flower to bet on for those of you who live in more northern latitudes that get early night frosts.