Annual Bedding Wallflowers - Can you take cuttings?

[shushkin!]

Hi all
Im loving my bedding wallflowers at the moment and there are a couple of colours I really like and want to keep for next year. Can I strike cuttings off of these?
Ive successfully taken them off my perennial ones like Bowles Mauve.
Thanks

[Martin H]

Hi all
Im loving my bedding wallflowers at the moment and there are a couple of colours I really like and want to keep for next year. Can I strike cuttings off of these?
Ive successfully taken them off my perennial ones like Bowles Mauve.
Thanks

I don't know I've never tried, I always sow fresh in May and take pot luck with the colours. It ought to be possible though, the plants quite often have a few non-flowering shoots and I would expect these to root ok. Might try it myself actually, next door's have got some really nice deep red ones...

[Alison]

I had some which I didn't dig up from last year and they seem to have flowered again this year. They're definitely supposed to be annuals and didn't self seed so am assuming the very mild winter is somehow to blame

[veggiechicken]

They keep going for several years - just get a bit leggy!
I think they call them "annual" as people treat them like bedding plants and rip them out when they finish flowering. Not me - as long as they have leaves and flowers they can stay

[mothhawk]

The answer is yes. When my wallflowers finished flowering last year I let them go to seed, which meant they grew long and straggly. So after I gathered the seed in late summer, I nipped off about 4" from the tops of the plants. Some of these I shoved into the ground to see if they would grow - (waste not, want not ) - literally shoved, just pushing the stalk into the soil. They wilted a bit, then revived and rooted.

The original plants are still in the ground as well, all in glorious flower again. I don't do "bedding" displays, and I agree with VC, if they keep growing and flowering, they earn their keep and can stay.

And the scent - lovely