PlantSowGrow
How to grow Cerinthe (Honeywort)
Cerinthe major
🌸 Flower
🌱 Grown each year
Blue-grey leaves and nodding, deep purple-blue bells — bumblebees adore it. A cottage-garden favourite that self-seeds.
At a glance: Sow early April to mid May.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Flowers
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Cerinthe (Honeywort): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water in dry spells; pots daily in summer
- Soil
- Any well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 30 cm
- Height
- 45 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- Liquid feed every two weeks once flowering starts
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 2–11
- Difficulty
- Easy
Step by step
- Early April – mid May · 2 weeks before the last spring frost
Sow Seeds Outdoors
Sow thinly where they are to flower, in a sunny spot, into raked, weed-free soil. Soak the big seeds overnight and sow 1 cm deep.
- 10–21 days after “Sow Seeds Indoors” · Mid April – late April
Check Germination
Seedlings should appear in 10–21 days. Keep the soil moist. If sown outdoors, thin them to 30 cm apart once they have two true leaves.
- 69–99 days after “Check Germination” · Mid June – mid July
First Flowers
Take a photo for your journal!
- Mid October – early November · around the first autumn frost
Clear or Collect Seed
When frost blackens the plants, pull them up for the compost heap. Leave a few seedheads first if you want to save seed.
