From BZ/dpa
In the first year you can mistake them for weeds, in the second they bloom unmistakably beautifully: So-called biennial plants, which also include pansies and foxgloves.
If you don’t recognize them, you may tear them up as a young plant when weeding – and thus miss a splendor in the bed. We are talking about so-called two-year-olds.
Never heard? Pansies, forget-me-nots or columbines are among these two-year-olds. Just like clary sage, mullein, evening primrose, foxglove or hollyhock.
The Bavarian Garden Academy explains that it is generally understood to mean plants that do not flower in the same year in which they were sown. While they only form roots and leaves in the first year, in which they store nutrients and produce flower buds under the cold effects of late autumn and winter, the following year they flower. After developing seeds, biennials eventually die.
Sow when the mother plant is seed-ripe
The new biennials are sown now, in the summer before the mother plant flowers. Either you put the seeds in seed trays and then put the grown small plants in the garden. Or, according to the experts, you can make it easier for yourself: you simply scatter the seed directly in the bed with wide throws.
In both cases, too many plants will probably sprout that are close together. Here you have to remove a few superfluous plants or spread the seedlings in the pot at greater distances, called pricking out.
Low maintenance and satisfied with many locations
The demands on the location in the garden are low: biennial plants hardly need any space and thrive even in wall cracks and path joints. They are also considered particularly valuable because they attract insects and are therefore suitable for designing a natural garden.
By the way, there are also two-year-olds among the vegetables and herbs – chard, leeks, carrots or parsley and caraway are just a few examples. If you don’t harvest these edible plants directly, you can experience flowering a few months later.