Sorry, I'm no help. I've given up, and grow larkspur by scattering the seeds in the fall/winter. They now re-seed and are beautiful in late May.

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I grow them every year in Raleigh. They just aren't perennial here no matter what you do. Either start some seeds now and protect throughout the winter (shelter them from the worst weather). Or find a garden center with seedlings for sale in the early spring. Plant them on a mound of rich fluffy soil, let them dry out between watering, use some tall stakes and stand back. They get between 4 and 6 feet tall in my part sun yard. Some of mine just finished blooming - those that bloom later look rattier than those that bloom earlier.

Granite - beautiful picture - I do the same thing - while I simply love the lushness of the delphiniums I much prefer the ease of care of the larkspur. I am going to try some delphinium from seed now and see if I can winter it over like Triangle John suggested. Here are a couple of pictures of my larkspur from this spring......

Lynne

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Lovely pictures. Is Larkspur invasive?
John, I know a lady who's growing Delphs in SC. It's some of the Milennium series. I'm gonna try those next year.

Carla

Carla - they reseed readily for me but are very easy to pull out - they start germinating in Dec for me(zone 8)so I have plenty of time to determine how many I want. If your gardens are heavily mulched you won't get as much germination.....

Lynne

Carla - I usually buy my delphinium seedlings in Charleston if I'm there (I've been known to make a special trip). There seems to be a wider selection down there than there is up here. Delphs are a popular winter bloomer along the coast.

Around Raleigh I can only find seedlings at Logan's downtown and only for a few weeks in early March. The supplier only grows a mix of blues and this year they were all the same shade of baby blue. They were nice but I wanted some of the dark purples and dark blues so I guess I will have to hunt down some seed.

Plenty of people didn't believe me when I said I was growing them until they came over and saw an entire row of 5 to 6 footers in full bloom.

There isn't much sense in killing yourself over them as seedlings - when I've grown overwintered seedlings next to freshly purchased spring seedlings the blooms were hard to tell apart. And you do lose a few from rot during the winter.

I've got to get some larkspur started. They are so beautiful in the garden. Lynn, where did you get your trellises?

Alicia - the white one my kids bought for me the summer after their daddy passed away as an entrance to his memorial garden - I think it came from Lowes or Home Depot. The green one in the back was the one that my husband and I were married under last summer - it came from Micheals Arts and Crafts up in Garner - sort of symbalizes going from one life into another - both very special arbors....

Lynne

Thanks Lynn. I didn't know Michael's sold anything like that.

Lynne, your garden and the significance of the arches really touched me. Thank you for sharing that.
Would you, or any of you, know where I can get the seed for the larkspur? We grew it at a nursery I worked at, and it would seed into the gravel paths, where we would just pluck it and move it into the beds. I would love to get some started.

Graceful Gardens has the Milineum series, not sure about my spelling of Mil.

Amyflora - thank you :)

as for larkspur seed - basically any seed company - try Parks Seed for seeds now - you can sow them late fall/early winter for spring bloom - ....

Lynne

Here is a link that might be useful: larkspur

I sneaked some seed in PGH from a lawn that my dog and I used to walk past everyday. Just threw them in my garden and had them every year since then. Was to busy when we left to gather seed and I have also been looking for seed. Adele

Lynne,
This is a naive question, but how do you sow them and what month? Do you just spinkle the seeds on the ground and do I need to remove the mulch first? I'd love to grow them and have had absolutely no luck with Delphiniums - I treat them as annuals. So larkspur would be great.
Liz

My larkspurs self-seed and come up pretty thickly despite a 1-4" mulch layer. They have dropped their seeds over the past 2 weeks. I just pulled out the last of the dried stems this past weekend.

Sorry, I didn't save any seeds this year. I do have some seed saved from 2002 or 2003. The larkspur here just comes up so thick now that all I really do is thin the seedlings out a few times in the winter and early spring and then just let them have at it. They bloom in late May and early June.

Raven - I have not had to sow any larkspur seed for the past 5 years - it just selfseeds all over the place. I pull them out by the droves in late winter and early spring. THe first time I sowed them was in the late fall and they started germinating in January sometimes even in Dec but stay very small little feathery plants. Hope that helps you....

Lynne

Thank you everyone. Thanks for the pretty pictures. I will sow some this fall. I gave up on Delphs.

Carla

Can seeds be collected from Larkspur plants, and if so when are they collected?

Thank you,

Hi Carla,
I am north of Chapel Hill NC. Larkspur is a short lived annual which dies after it blooms. After flowering the seed pods start to split and the seeds are similar to poppy seeds. The plant itself has a narrow but deep tap root and will not disturb anything growing around it. Here, we pull the plants up and shake the plants and let the seeds sprout up where they may. We don't wait for Fall. The same for Nigella.
We even have Larkspur growing in the pots with the OGRs ( I know your an ole org girl from and Antique Rose Forum).
It is a great no water Spring plant that changes the garden from year to year.
Jim