{"id":9686,"date":"2019-03-01T18:40:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T18:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/five-tricks-growing-lisianthus\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T00:20:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:20:29","slug":"five-tricks-growing-lisianthus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/five-tricks-growing-lisianthus\/","title":{"rendered":"Updated: Five Tricks for Growing Lisianthus"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=\\”1\\”][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=\\”4_4\\”][et_pb_text _builder_version=\\”3.18.4\\”]<\/p>\n

\\\"A<\/p>\n

I first wrote a post about tips for growing lisianthus<\/a> in 2015.\u00a0 That post has since become the most popular one on the blog\u2026 actually the top hit for the entire website!\u00a0 And I hear repeatedly from new flower growers about how they\u2019ve found that original post to be so helpful as they tackle growing lisianthus themselves.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve fine-tuned our lisianthus production here at our farm even more over the past three growing seasons.\u00a0 So an update to that original post seems in order! The text that follows is a mix of old and new.\u00a0 Happy growing!<\/p>\n

When I first started designing for weddings, nearly every couple asked me for roses. My first season as a farmer florist (way back in 2009), I stuttered a good bit, trying to explain how I didn\u2019t have them because they are very challenging to grow organically in our climate. I didn\u2019t mention that I also happen to strongly dislike roses. Too much fuss, and I hate those thorns! However, I realized pretty quickly that I needed to have a good alternative to offer if I was going to be successful as a wedding florist. Enter growing lisianthus \u2013 a far superior rose!<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

I remember attending my very first ASCFG <\/a>conference and listening to experienced growers debate the merits and shortcomings of growing lisianthus. I got the decided impression that, while gorgeous and long-lasting in the vase, they were hard to grow. \u00a0So when I started growing lisianthus myself, I was so surprised at how easy they were!! Lisianthus have consistently been one of our top crops over the years in terms of quantities and profitability, second only to the dahlias.\u00a0 With all the new flower growers out there, especially farmer florists, in their first few seasons at the moment, it seems like a great time to demystify this crop that really is ridiculously easy to grow with a few tried-and-true tricks up your sleeve.<\/p>\n

It is important to note that all our lisianthus at Love \u2018n Fresh Flowers are grown in the field<\/u>. You do not need a greenhouse or tunnel to grow beautiful lisianthus!\u00a0 However, many growers do grow them under protective cover in areas that receive a lot of rain and\/or do not have particularly hot summers.\u00a0 When it comes time to flower in the summer, lisianthus like it dry and hot for best quality of blooms.\u00a0 They originated as a prairie wildflower so that gives you a clue about what conditions they prefer.\u00a0 \u00a0Fun fact: lisianthus are native to the United States!<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

Five Tricks to Growing Lisianthus in the Field<\/h2>\n

1. Plant Early<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Just about everyone knows how slow growing lisianthus are. If you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll soon find out with your first crop. What is maybe less common knowledge is how cold\/frost tolerant lisianthus are since these blooms are often associated with the high heat of summer. While the plants love the heat to throw up their flouncy blooms, they actually also love cool temperatures for putting on root growth, which is what ultimately supports tall and bountiful harvests.<\/p>\n

As such, we are religious about putting our lisianthus in the ground, out in the field, on April 1st each year, regardless of the spring conditions. That\u2019s about 2 weeks before our average last frost.\u00a0 The tiny rosettes hug the ground and therefore are pretty well protected against freezing and frost. If the weather is particularly nasty, we will cover them with a layer of frost blanket, but that\u2019s rare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

UPDATED: The spring of 2018 was an incredibly wet one and we lost quite a number of our lisianthus to rot at an early stage.\u00a0 Moving forward, we\u2019ll have short wire hoops over the newly planted lisianthus with a layer of plastic at the ready to shield them from heavy rain until they have their root systems well-established.\u00a0 The plastic will always come off on nice days as we don\u2019t want to get the young lisianthus hot in the spring, but we do need to do something about all the rain!<\/p>\n

To get them in the ground April 1st, we make sure to talk to our plug broker in November so the plug grower has enough time to get our plugs going. While we historically have grown 99% of what we have at the farm from seed ourselves, lisianthus is the one crop that I will never bother to grow from seed again (I did for my first season, but never again). Instead, we get our plugs from our supplier the last week of February or the first week of March in 210s and typically bump them up to two inch soil blocks or #72 trays as soon as we get them and grow on in those for a month until planting out.\u00a0 If you do not have a greenhouse, you could order the #128 tray size to arrive right before you are ready to plant and put them directly in the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This early planting date gives the plants plenty of time to put on growth before the heat of summer and also gives them a bit of an edge over those tenacious summer weeds.<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

UPDATED: \u00a0I\u2019ve gotten asked a lot about where to source lisianthus plugs. \u00a0We get ours from Gro \u2018n Sell<\/a> based just 20 minutes away from us here in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 They always grow incredibly high-quality plugs and are committed to using sustainable practices, particularly IPM, whenever they can.\u00a0 We place our orders through Farmer Bailey\u2019s<\/a> site, but there are several other brokers who can help you place your order if you\u2019re already working with one (i.e., Rakers, Gloeckner<\/a>, Harris<\/a>, etc).\u00a0 Please note, this is a wholesale grower\/broker situation that we are using.\u00a0 So to do the same, you\u2019ll need to have a business license to set up an account and be willing to order several hundred plants.\u00a0 We typically order about 1500-2000 lisianthus plugs each season from Gro \u2018n Sell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you are a home gardener interested in growing lisianthus, you\u2019ll have better luck looking in your local community for an outstanding, independent garden center and asking them if they carry lisianthus. \u00a0If they don\u2019t, you might want to tell them about this blog so you can start growing lisianthus too!<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

2. Weed Management<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Speaking of summer weeds, if you\u2019re going to grow lisianthus, you need to have a serious weed management game plan in place for them! Because these plants stay small for several months and the leaves are at the base as a low-growing rosette, aggressive weeds will quickly overtake plants and smother them. Creepers like crabgrass are particularly tough when growing lisianthus. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lisiathus is a high value crop worth investing in so I gladly pay for a plastic mat system called FloraFlow<\/a>\u00a0 that comes with uniform pre-punched holes that are only two inches in diameter so there\u2019s very little room for weeds to grow up though the holes. It also keeps the lisianthus cropping system very tidy and efficiently spaced as a whole so we can fit a lot of plants into a small amount of space.\u00a0 You can space lisianthus plants as close at 3\u201d on center.\u00a0 When we\u2019re really tight for space, we even put two plants per whole and they still seem to produce well (enough).\u00a0<\/p>\n

But plastic is not a silver bullet for weeds. We make weeding the lisianthus top priority around the farm. It\u2019s much easier on us and better for the crop if we weed early and often<\/em><\/span> rather than waiting until the situation is dire and we pull up as many young lisianthus as we do weeds. So put some reminders on your calendar to get those lisianthus weeded at least every two weeks if you have decent weed pressure at your farm. Make sure to water well immediately after each weeding so that the delicate roots get re-settled into the ground.<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

3. Watering and Feeding<\/strong><\/h4>\n

When prepping the lisianthus beds in the spring, we amend them with compost, cotton seed meal and green potash. We have a really nice loamy clay soil at our farm that the lisianthus love because it holds water and nutrients well, but does not stay wet. I suspect that growing this crop in sandy soils or heavy clay might be more challenging, but I don\u2019t have experience with that.<\/p>\n

After planting, we do a weekly foliar spray of an emulsified mix of fish powder, bat guano, and kelp powder.\u00a0 This seems to be a good balance feed to keep the lisianthus healthy while they put on their roots through the early months.<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

UPDATED: If you are using a similar foliar application as we do, it\u2019s best to spray right after the lisianthus are weeded so you are not also spray\/feeding the weeds and shooting yourself in the foot. \u00a0We only spray the plants when they are not<\/u> flowering.\u00a0 Once the lisianthus have developed plump buds, we stop spraying since the blooms get discolored if any of the spray gets onto them.<\/p>\n

Also, it\u2019s important to use drip irrigation when growing lisianthus. The flowers do not like getting wet and are prone to spotting and\/or molding if you water overhead with a sprinkler or hose.\u00a0 For this reason, it\u2019s also important to keep an eye on the forecast when your lisianthus are in bud.\u00a0 If a heavy rain is coming the next day, it\u2019s best to get those lisianthus harvested the evening before so the blooms don\u2019t get saturated!<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

4. Variety Selection<\/strong><\/h4>\n

UPDATED: Before you start drooling over every cool lisianthus photo on Pinterest<\/a>, think carefully about who\u2019s going to be buying from you. We use all our lisianthus \u201cin house\u201d here at Love \u2018n Fresh, mostly for weddings and occasionally for straight bunches sold through our grocery store accounts and in our CSA bouquets. As such, we have the luxury of being able to grow some of the shorter varieties that hold up better to bad storms and do not need netting. We also grow some of the oddball colors like Roseanne Brown and Doublini that work well for weddings but would not pass mustard in retail.<\/p>\n

If you are selling wholesale to florists, you will be expected to grow the taller varieties since stem length (sadly, in my opinion) means more money. \u00a0If you are selling to florists, I would stick with the ABC series and then try just a few specialty varieties like Roseanne Brown and Coreli Light Pink until you see exactly what your florists want.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\\\"An<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re selling mostly at a farmer\u2019s market, you should avoid Roseanne Brown because all your customers are going to think it looks dead (and frankly, it does).\u00a0 I\u2019ve always found that the brighter\/saturated colors of lisianthus sell best at market, so stick with bright pinks, deep purples, and maybe try a few Roseanne Green if you want to spice it up a bit.\u00a0 But, really, steer clear of anything too \u201cfunky\u201d.\u00a0 Farmers market customers generally aren\u2019t interested in funky; they want easy, fun, cheerful bouquets.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Something to also consider when choosing lisianthus varieties is if you want to net them in the field or not. I\u2019m going to be honest: I hate<\/em> netting. We\u2019ve completely stopped using it at our farm at this point. \u00a0It\u2019s expensive, both to purchase and to put up every season (mucho woman hours) and it makes harvesting so much slower and often a bit wasteful with all the broken stems, especially when it comes to brittle lisianthus. So we\u2019ve been net-free on our lisianthus for five seasons now. This means that some old favorites have been given the boot (ABC 3-4 Pink, I\u2019m looking at you) and a lot of new varieties have been trialed specifically to find out if they\u2019ll stay upright on their own, even in our wicked summer storms here in the Mid-Atlantic. Some varieties that have done particularly well for us without netting are ABC 3-4 White, Falda Salmon, the Echo series, Arena Apricot, Corelli Light Pink, the Doublini series, and the Rosanne series.<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

Like snapdragons, lisianthus are segmented into bloom-time categories so you will sometimes see numbers associated with variety names (i.e., ABC 3-4 White). Also like snapdragons, I have found that attempting to \u201cprogram\u201d blooms in the field is much harder than it would be in a greenhouse, which is where that number system were developed. Inevitably, your lisianthus are going to bloom pretty much all at once <\/em>when field grown, even if you did try to succession plant them for staggered bloom times. Be prepared for this with a sales outlet eager to buy them as soon as you pick them.<\/p>\n

A note on storing cut lisianthus:\u00a0 They do not like a cold cooler.\u00a0 In my experience, it\u2019s best to store them around 42-48 degrees if possible.\u00a0 They resent being much below 40, and if given a choice, I\u2019d rather leave them out in the shade of a tree or in a cool basement instead of a cooler below 40. \u00a0If stored properly, we can generally keep them in the cooler for up to 2 weeks until we use them in our floral designs for weddings.\u00a0 I would say storing them for a week in a cooler is still fine for selling them at farmers markets or to florists.\u00a0 So if you have a sales outlet ready in a week but you see big storms rolling through soon, get out there and pick those lisianthus and store them rather than letting them on the plants to get hit with heavy rain!<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

5. Second Flush<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Assuming you were diligent in getting your plugs into the ground in early April, in the Mid-Atlantic area (we are zone 7 here) there is a long enough growing season to get a very nice second flush off of your lisianthus, usually sometime in early to mid-September. The first major bloom happens in mid-July. But this second flush is particularly welcomed at our farm since it\u2019s perfectly timed for our very full autumn wedding season!<\/p>\n

To get a good second flush, you need to do a few important tasks. First, when you harvest the first flush of blooms in July, make sure you are cutting the plants back almost to the base. Do not leave stumps of stems that will just result in weak secondary growth.<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve gleaned all of your first flush of blooms, take time to thoroughly weed the bed, irrigate, and fertilize, ideally all on the same day<\/em>. This gives the plants a huge boost and the signal to go ahead and put energy back into putting on new growth instead of shutting down. Then remember to be diligent about weeding every week or so thereafter. At our farm, we have to battle the crabgrass in particular in late July when it\u2019s rampant.<\/p>\n

Remember to keep your lisianthus irrigated while it puts on this new growth in the heat of late summer, especially every time after you weed. As the plants grow for the second flush, we return to our weekly foliar applications, which really helps those new stems get taller. Any and all TLC you can give the lisianthus while they put out the second growth will result in taller and more plentiful blooms in September.<\/p>\n

\\\"Lisianthus<\/p>\n

So, what do you think?\u00a0 Will you be growing lisianthus this season?\u00a0 I hope I\u2019ve help make them much more approachable!\u00a0 And you can find out a lot more advice about growing lisianthus and every other flower by joining the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers<\/a>, an amazingly generous group of professional flower farmers who are happy to share advice!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For more flower farming tips, be sure to check out this past post on Growing Ranunculus and Anemones in Zone 6b\/7<\/a> or this previous post about my Five Favorite Native Perennials for Cutting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\\\"Five<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=\\”1\\”][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=\\”4_4\\”][et_pb_text _builder_version=\\”3.18.4\\”] I first wrote a post about tips for growing lisianthus in 2015.\u00a0 That post has since become the most popular one on the blog\u2026 actually the top hit for the entire website!\u00a0 And I hear repeatedly from new flower growers about how they\u2019ve found that original post to be so helpful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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That post has since become the most popular one on the blog\u2026 actually the top hit for the entire website!\u00a0 And I hear repeatedly from new flower growers about how they\u2019ve found that original post to be so helpful…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14079,"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9686\/revisions\/14079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}