Honesty, or Lunaria annua, is an easy biennial plant to grow and care for. Here are some steps to help you grow your Honesty plant:
1. Sowing: Sow the seeds of Honesty in early summer to flower the following spring. You can sow them in pots or a seed tray and transplant them into larger pots when they are large enough to handle. Plant them out into their final growing positions in autumn.
2. Soil: Honesty thrives in fertile, moist, and well-drained soil that is slightly alkaline. It does best in partial shade.
3. Watering: Keep the soil moist but not waterlogged.
4. Flowers: Let the flowers develop seed heads for attractive winter displays. The purple or white fragrant flowers in spring and early summer are beautiful in their own right and are also appealing to pollinating insects ¹.
5. Propagation: Honesty will self-seed easily if not cut back. However, saving a few seed pods can also collect seeds for propagation. Sow them in early summer for planting out in autumn and flowering the following spring ¹.
6. Care: Honesty is a low-maintenance plant and doesn’t require feeding or cutting back.