[David Dickinson]

I bought some seeds of this and they were very quick to come up. But they produced very few leaves and yet they produced flowers. I was away from home for 10 days and came back to find those which I had sown in situ had died. I still have one or two in pots which I will plant out but I was rather hoping they would fill in spaces and give flowers at the same time. I am only getting single flowers on very short plants with next to no foliage. Can anyone help?

[Alisdair]

David, I've never tried this lovely-looking plant, but this California Native Plant Society website rather suggests that to grow well it may need a more temperate climate than Rome to thrive.

[David Dickinson]

Judging by their performance I think you are right Alisdair. Given that they are annuals I set the seed back at the beginning of February and I imagined they would be well developed by April and so miss the hottest part of the year. We have had no exceptionally hot weather yet and I was surprised that they flowered with so little foliage. They started to germinate within a few days. Let's see what happens over the next few weeks. If I get seed from this batch I might sow some in the autumn and see if they sprout then.