How To Grow Busy Lizzies

Busy Lizzies are a popular garden flower. One of the main reasons for this is that they will grow beautifully in shade. I know my garden has one area which never really seems to get any sun as there is a wall blocking the sun reaching it. Busy Lizzies will do well in this sort of area.

How To Grow Busy Lizzies

Sowing Sweet Busy Lizzies

The seeds of a Busy Lizzie are known to be a bit temperamental. This is because they don’t like to be covered very much. If you cover them with a thick layer of soil, they won’t get the light they need to germinate and then will fail to grow.

Busy Lizzies are best grown in a cellular seed tray at first. Fill your seed cells with a good quality seed compost and water well before adding the seeds. This will ensure that your compost is nice and damp without washing your seeds too far under the covering compost.

Once you have your filled seed trays with compost and watered, you should add a seed to each cell and cover them very lightly. You should add a little water to the top, but be very careful not to wash the seed right under the compost. It needs light to germinate.

When you are thinking about how to grow Busy Lizzies, temperature and light are key. A temperature of around 21 – 24 degrees is best to help them germinate, plus lots of light – which I know is a hard thing to come by this time of year. But popping them by the patio doors or on a sunny windowsill will do wonders for their chances. If they do fail to germinate, chances are they haven’t had enough light or enough heat, so you could try again when the weather is a bit warmer and sunnier.

People have been known to heat the bottom of the seedling tray to help germination, but this has to be done carefully otherwise you may make it too warm and the seeds won’t grow because they have been heated up too much.

The seeds will probably take about 1 – 2 weeks to germinate.

Once they have germinated and grown into little seedlings, you should move them into bigger pots and also move them to a cooler location.

Planting Out Busy Lizzies

When Spring arrives and it starts to get a bit warmer outside, you can think about moving them outside. You’ll need to acclimatise them first, otherwise, you risk shocking them. Pop them outside during the day in Springtime and then put them back in your greenhouse at night for a week to 10 days.

Once they are used to being outside, you can plant them in their final spot. As I mentioned, they will do well in a shady spot if that’s your plan for your Busy Lizzies. They are a versatile plant.

Busy Lizzies are good for hanging baskets as well as planting in beds. If you are planting them in beds, space them around 20 – 30 cm apart.

Watering and Feeding Busy Lizzies

So you’ve solved how to grow Busy Lizzies, now you need to know how to look after them.

Busy Lizzies are thirsty flowers and so you should water them regularly. They don’t like to be in direct sunlight as this may scorch their leaves and they don’t do well in super warm temperatures (over 25 degrees) for long periods. So make sure you position them well and water them regularly.

If you are feeding your Busy Lizzies, a tomato feed is ideal, about once a week over the summer. This will help them keep on flowering. You should deadhead you Busy Lizzies regularly too as this will keep them flowering all over the summer. Are you looking to how to grow Busy Lizzies this year? Have you had much success in the past or have your seeds failed to germinate. I’d love to hear what varieties you recommend and why.

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