NEWLY UPDATED 2019 POST AVAILABLE BY CLICKING HERE.
When I first started designing for weddings, nearly every couple asked me for roses. My first season, I stuttered a good bit, trying to explain how I didn’t have them because they are very challenging to grow organically in our climate. I didn’t mention that I also happen to strongly dislike roses. Too much fuss, and I hate those thorns! 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 lisianthus – a far superior rose!
I remember my first ASCFG conference and listening to experienced growers debate the merits and shortcomings of lisianthus. I got the decided impression that they were hard to grow. So when I started growing them myself, I was so surprised at how easy they were. Lisianthus are now one of our top crops in terms of quantities and sales, second only to the dahlias. Realizing that there are currently a lot of new growers, especially farmer florists, in our membership, I thought it might be a great time to demystify this crop that really is ridiculously easy to grow with a few tried-and-true tricks up your sleeve.
It is important to note that all our lisianthus at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers are grown in the field. You do not need a greenhouse or hoophouse to grow beautiful lisianthus.
1. Plant Early
Just about everyone knows how slow growing lisianthus are. If you don’t, you’ll soon find out with your first crop. What is maybe less common knowledge is how cold/frost tolerant lisianthus are since these blooms are most 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.
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. The tiny rosettes hug the ground and therefore are well protected against freezing and frost. If the weather is particularly nasty, we will cover them with a layer of frost blanket, but that’s rare.
To get them in the ground April 1st, we make sure to talk to our plug broker in November so the plug grower(s) have enough time to get our plugs going. While we grow 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. Instead, we get our plugs from our supplier(s) the last week of February or the first week of March in 210s and typically bump them up to two inch soil blocks as soon as we get them and grow on in those for a month until planting out.
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.
2. Weed Management
Speaking of weeds, if you’re 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 most of the leaves are at the base as a rosette, aggressive weeds, especially creepers like crabgrass, will quickly overtake plants and smother them. This is a high value crop worth investing in so I gladly pay for a plastic mat system called FloraFlow (www.floraflow.com) that comes with pre-punched holes that are only two inches in diameter so there’s 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.
But plastic is not a silver bullet for weeds. We make weeding the lisianthus top priority around the farm. It’s much easier on us and better for the crop if we weed early and often 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.
3. Feeding
We grow organically at our farm so we rely on regular foliar applications of fish and kelp emulsion to feed our lisianthus. When prepping the 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 but does not stay wet. I suspect that growing this crop in sandy soils or heavy clay might be more challenging, but I don’t have experience with that.
4. Selection
As with all flowers, you need to consider your end buyer before you make any decisions about which lisianthus varieties to grow. We use all our lisianthus “in house”, mostly for weddings and occasionally for straight bunches sold through our grocery store accounts. 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 and some of the oddball colors like Roseanne Brown. But if you are selling wholesale mostly to florists, you will be expected to grow the taller varieties since stem length (sadly, in my opinion) means more money. If you’re selling mostly at a farmers market, you probably should avoid Roseanne Brown because all your customers are going to think it looks dead (and frankly, it does). So, before you start drooling over every cool photo in the catalog, think carefully about who’s going to be buying from you.
Something to also consider when choosing lisianthus varieties is if you want to net them in the field or not. I’m going to be honest: I hate netting. I’m working hard to get away from it as much as possible at our farm. It’s expensive, both to purchase and to put up every season (mucho man 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’ve been net-free on our lisianthus for two seasons now. This means that some old favorites have been given the boot (ABC 3-4 Pink, I’m looking at you) and a lot of new varieties have been trialed specifically to find out if they’ll 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, Echo Champagne, Echo Lavender, and Rosanne Green.
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 programing 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 when field grown. Be prepared for this with a sales outlet eager to buy them as soon as you pick them. There was an article in a recent Quarterly that talked about experimenting with pinching lisianthus. We did not have a chance to try pinching to stagger the blooms this year, but plan to give it a go next year.
5. Second Flush
Assuming you were diligent in getting your plugs into the ground in early April, in the Mid-Atlantic area 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. This second flush is much welcomed at our farm since it’s perfectly timed for our very full autumn wedding season.
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. Once you’ve gleaned all of your first flush of blooms, take time to thoroughly weed the bed, irrigate, and fertilize, ideally all on the same day. 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’s rampant.
Remember to keep your lisianthus well irrigated while it puts on this new growth in the middle of the heat of summer, especially every time after you weed. I try to spray again with fish and kelp emulsion as the new stems are beginning to 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.
Now is a great time to start thinking about what lisianthus plugs you want to order for next year!
Do you mind my asking, who is your plug supplier? Do they sell only wholesale, or retail as well? Thanks so much!
İt is very helpful. Thanks for evet yine who contributed. I also will be happy having more tips for greenhouse culture.
Thanks
I thought that lisianthus didn’t like their leaves watered, but you spray them with fish emulsion?
Thanks,
Chris Sinclair
The blooms do not like getting wet because they easily mold. The leaves are fine being sprayed with the fish emulsion. We are careful not to get any of the spray on the buds/blooms though.
I have that same question ?
Do you mind me asking, who is your plug supplier? Do they sell only wholesale, or retail as well? Thanks so much!
We use a wholesale plug supplier here in Pennsylvania called Gro ‘n Sell.
I ordered from Farmer Bailey (www.farmerbailey.com) and they come from the Gro n’ Sell program. Fantastic plugs! It was my first year ordering and I will order again if I grow Lizzy’s next year.
Where can l get plugs
We get our plugs from Gro ‘n Sell here in Pennsylvania.
I’m in North Carolina. Where do you get your plugs?
Great article! I’ve heard nothing but how difficult they are to grow so wasn’t even going to go there. Now though…bring on the lizzies! Can I just ask, what is the closest you would space them when planting?
Can you recommend varieties for farmers markets and varieties for weddings? I thought I would need a high tunnel to grow these and after your post I am willing to give them a try next spring!
Thank you for these great tips Jennie! I truly appreciate your informative & educational posts.
Thank you, Jennie!!
Thanks for the great info. We also want to try field lissies but are a bit trepidatious. I have two questions:
1) do you have an issue with water spotting and how do you prevent it?
2) have you had success with succession planting to get a longer bloom period?
Thanks
Jonathan
Thank you so much for generously sharing your hard earned knowledge. I appreciate help from veterans like you more than you know! I cannot wait to give lisanthus a go next year. I will come back to this post probably a hundred times before I harvest my first crop, much like I do with your anemone and ranunculus post 🙂
Thanks again,
Kyler
Such great information Jennie. Thanks!
Hi Jennie,
Wondering what zone you grow in, and so what “April 1st” means relative to your last frost date? Going to try Lissies this year but our last frost is May 15!
We are in zone 7/6b (technically we are 6b but since we are in the city of Philadelphia, we tend to be a smidge warmer and I consider us to be zone 7 mostly). April 1st is about 2 weeks before our last frost date. Good luck with the lissies!!
Awesome information, thanks for sharing! Not a whole lot of information out there for growing Lisianthus, so it’s great for you to help demystify it!
Great post. Bravo to author for this magic post about floral design from http://www.alaricflowers.com team. This article was very helpful to all of us.
Thank you for the post. I will be growing Lisianthus next year in C alifornia. On your blow you show a beautiful photo ( second photo from the top) right next to your 1. of five tricks to grow Lisianthus. Would you be willing to share what variety that is? I have dug through the internet but can’t find a picture or seeds. I’m sure I”m just not looking in the right place.
Thank you so much.
Hi! Thank you for all of the information you provide. I LOVE following you all over the place!
I am growing Deep Brown lisianthus for the first time this year. It is gorgeous and in serious bloom. My issue is I have a wedding the bride wants them for on August 27th (2 weeks from now). I am having a really hard time finding any information about how long they might last after harvest? And, will they continue to open if they are in tight bud stage? I have a refrigerator I could temp control and access to a floral cooler (maybe). I have about 280 plants; 7-8 buds on each one, with maybe 1-2 open now. Any advice? I would appreciate any feedback you have. I don’t know if I should cut them or leave them in the field for a week and then harvest. Maybe a lost cause?
Thanks so much,
katy
Would you share who your plug supplier is? I realize it is too late to order for this year but will keep the info for 2018 growing season
Thanks
Kathy
Do you ever use shade cloth over your lisianthus and do you ever plant your dalias in plastic?
Thanks
Florence
Hi Jennie, what type weather conditions would you cover them with frost blanket. I am zone 7a (Long Island, NY) would you cover for evenings in low 30’s, days in 40-50
s? Thanks Karen
Lisianthus are tough little cookies. They would likely be fine down into the low 30s without cover, but the thing to consider more is how windy it is. The little transplants dry out quickly if there is a lot of wind. Covering them with frost cloth gives them some shelter from the wind. So, when in doubt, tuck them in.
Thank you for the tips. I have a bird-and-butterfly garden using native species here in the Coastal Plains of Texas, where Prairie Gentian is called Texas Bluebells. We live along the banks of the Brazos River, and the native species grow in the sun and partial shade in our very hot region.
The native Prairie Gentian is rare, due to folks taking plants from the wild, but not extinct as in other states. Just wanted to encourage readers to use garden variety Eustoma grandiflora rather than taking from the wild, in hopes of saving this beauty in our fields and parks. May God bless y’all in your work!
Thanks for this info! I’m wondering if tactics have changed in the 3 years since this article. This year I’ve grown Echo lavender outside and didn’t net and they’ve stood up well compared to Croma yellow (fell over but they are super tall so wish I’d netted!) and Arena Apricot is doing ok without net. The first blooms of Echo got nailed by a week of heavy rain (Hudson valley) so Im hoping the later buds open without damage; with weather like this though i’ll probably grow under cover in the future ! This was super helpful for a first time grower, so thanks again.
I have plugs arriving at the end of February/beginning of March. They are coming as 128’s. I plan to grow them on indoors for about a month or so. I’m guessing I’ll need to bump them up? What would you recommend? Also, do you fertilize with the kelp and fish emulsion while growing on in the soil blocks, before planting outdoors? Finally, you mention that you field grow. Do you do anything to protect the buds from summer rains? I know. So many questions! Thanks so much for your awesome blog! I love it. -Jenn
I’m growing some lisianthus’ in a pot here in AUS unfortunately some hot weather killed all the blooms I had but a second crop of buds soon popped up – unfortunately they’re not blooming though they last maybe a week or two and then they die off? Any ideas why this might be happening? I tried fertilising them and I think that’s what led to the second crop but I’m not sure what to do now? And the weather has significantly cooled down as well
Thank you for the great information (and mouth-watering photographs)! I’ve a question — when you put out your plugs, how many leaves do the little guys have, on average? I started my lisianthus in late December and have been growing under fluorescents, and they’ve got 2-3 sets of big rubbery true leaves now. So far the forecast for my area is only calling for one more stretch of two, three nights where it even dips below freezing, so I’m thinking it wouldn’t be too precocious to get them out into the beds in the next week or two, but I’m unsure as to how small is “too” small at this point. Thank you!
Sounds like they’re at a good size for transplanting! If you’re in zone 7 or warmer, you can definitely plant them out next week. If you’re in a colder zone, you may want to wait just a week longer to be sure the true cold is gone. Good job on getting them started from seed!
Do I need to worry about soil temps when planting the young Lisianthus into the ground. Right now, my soil temp is 43 degrees and we will have some frost. I live in North Central WA and our highs right now are mid 50’s and lows around 30. Normally, I don’t put my lisianthus out until June when the soil temps are in the 60’s.
What zone are you? Our temperatures are about the same as yours and we plant them out now. You could hedge your bets a bit if you’re not feeling brave and plant them out in a few weeks towards the end of April when the soil warms up a bit more. They really are cold hardy, but I’d hate to advise you wrong and have you loose any babies. Everybody’s micro-climate is different. 🙂
Hi Jennie,
Would like to know what your favorite white variety is and if you’ve zeroed in on any new varieties since this article was first posted. Thank you.
My favorite white is ABC 3 White. Crisp white, sturdy, and tall. In terms of other new varieties, I actually wrote an updated version of this post this past spring so check that out for some new information: https://lovenfreshflowers.com/2019/03/01/five-tricks-growing-lisianthus/
Hi! I am a flower farmer in Illinois zone 6B. Do you over winter your Lizzies from the previous season or do you pull them out and plant a new crop every year? The weeds have taken over my beds but the plugs costed such a pretty penny I thought I would try to salvage them if I could. Thanks so much for your advice.
Hi Meghan – We plant new each season and have not overwintered our lisianthus since we need the bed space for other crops. I know several farmers who do overwinter their lisi, so give it a try if you want!
Hi, Thanks for all the info about Lisianthus, this is my third season growing them, and i think I finally have a beautiful crop coming. The question that I have is when do you start harvesting? When there is just one bloom in the middle, or do you wait for 3 blooms before cutting.
Thanks,
Annie Main
Good Humus Produce
Congrats on the promising lisi crop, Annie! We wait to harvest when there are a two or three blooms fully open and many plump buds on each stem.
My lisianthus has not flowered yet but they are a tall one stem. Should I snip them back for more branching?
I grow all my Lisianthus in pots, the tall and dwarf varieties. I keep them over the wi tee by putting them in an unheated sunroom. My question is, what is the coldest temp outside and inside that they can tolerate. Full grown plants certainly are OK with the temps in the low 30’s but wondering how low a temp until I can them inside.
Thanks, Jenny for such a great article! I’ve not seen it until today. I grew lots of lizzies from seed last year, but my season was interrupted by a couple of surgeries. I was going to start flower farming last summer, but instead, I learned so much and I found out how amazing these plants are after keeping them on my deck all summer in the TRAYS I GREW THEM IN. I planted about 20 in a large pot and, crazy, but these plants produced and produced beautiful flowers!! I made wonderful bouquets for myself while I recovered. I definitely have a much better understanding of the growing season after this article. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Hello Jennie, , I am writing from Northern California – Zone 9B and have a question on how to treat the spotting virus that are developing on my Lizzie’s which are about 6-8″ tall. I bought a product called Procidic® RTU that I am supposed to spray on the foliage. Do you have any experience with this product fighting off fungal leave diseases? This is described “This Broad Spectrum Fungicide/Bactericide Works On Contact and Systemically”. Darn Lisianthus anyway – I love these so much and I order these “tiny” plants from Burpee every year. Last year it was fungal gnats – this year a spotting virus on the leaves that is causing the plant foliage to turn yellow. (UGH) Any help that you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you 🙂