Night Scented Stock Seeds

Night Scented Stock (Matthiola longipetala, sometimes sold as Matthiola bicornis) is a Hardy Annual (H3/H4), meaning it completes its entire life cycle in one growing season and can withstand typical British frosts and cold weather remarkably well.

This charming plant originates from the warm, dry, sandy shores and stony hillsides of Greece, Turkey, and the broader Eastern Mediterranean region, where it has adapted perfectly to poor soils, full sun exposure, and minimal water. This Mediterranean heritage explains why it's so remarkably tough, undemanding, and easy to please in UK gardens!

The Evolutionary "Night Shift" Strategy: Night Scented Stock has evolved one of nature's most fascinating survival strategies! The plant is primarily pollinated by night-flying moths (particularly hawk moths), so it has adapted its entire biology to attract these nocturnal visitors. During bright daylight hours when moths are sleeping and dormant, the flowers deliberately close up and look wilted to conserve precious energy and protect delicate pollen from being damaged by intense sun, heat, and daytime pollinators that can't effectively pollinate them. Then, precisely as dusk falls and moths emerge to feed (typically around 7-9pm in summer), the flowers perform their nightly magic show—they open wide, stand proud, and simultaneously begin pumping out their extraordinarily powerful fragrance to create a scent trail that hungry moths can detect and follow from remarkable distances away. In return for sweet nectar, the moths pollinate the flowers whilst feeding. It's a perfect evolutionary partnership and genuinely extraordinary to witness this daily transformation!

CRITICAL Growing Strategy - Succession Sowing: Here's the secret to success that many gardeners miss: because individual Night Scented Stock plants are quite spindly, short-lived, and flower intensely but relatively briefly (typically 6-8 weeks per sowing before setting seed and declining), succession sowing is absolutely essential for continuous scent throughout summer! Don't sow your entire seed packet in one go in March and expect scent until October—it won't work! Instead, sow a small patch (perhaps 1/4 of your seeds) every 3 weeks from March through to early June. This staggered approach guarantees you'll have fresh plants constantly coming into flower, providing a continuous, uninterrupted supply of evening scent right through from late May until October. Each small successive planting ensures there are always plants in their prime flowering period!

The "Scatter and Forget" Philosophy: Once established, Night Scented Stock is genuinely one of the most relaxed, low-maintenance, trouble-free plants you can possibly grow. It requires almost zero attention once it's up and flowering. No feeding, minimal watering, no deadheading required—it just gets on with its job of perfuming your evenings with zero fuss!

CRITICAL - This Plant Hates Being Transplanted!
Night Scented Stock has a very spindly, weak, wispy, delicate root system that absolutely cannot tolerate any disturbance whatsoever. If you try to transplant it (even very carefully!), it will sulk badly, often dying or refusing to flower properly. Direct sowing is the ONLY successful method! Do not waste time and effort sowing in seed trays or modules with the intention of transplanting later—it simply won't work. Always, always, always sow directly into the final growing position whether that's in the ground or in a container.

How to Sow (Direct Sowing Only):
When to Sow: March to June (remember succession sowing—sow small batches every 3 weeks rather than everything at once!)

Method:
• Choose your final planting location (beneath windows, near seating, along paths, in patio containers)
• Prepare the soil by raking it to a fine tilth (crumbly texture)
• Scatter seeds thinly into a shallow drill (1cm deep groove) or broadcast scatter thinly across a prepared patch
• Cover lightly with just 3mm of soil or compost (barely covered—you should almost still see the seeds)
• Water gently with a fine rose to avoid washing seeds away
• Keep soil moist until germination occurs
• Germination is remarkably fast and reliable: typically 7-14 days
• Thin seedlings if overcrowded (though Night Scented Stock actually performs well when planted quite thickly—the plants support each other)

Where to Plant:
Night Scented Stock needs full sun (essential—minimum 6 hours direct sunlight daily). The plant needs this sunshine to "charge up" and produce the maximum fragrance for evening release. It's a bit like solar panels storing energy during the day to release at night!

Soil-wise, they prefer well-drained, lean, sandy, or gravelly soil. They're not fussy and actually thrive in poor soil that would disappoint many other plants. Avoid waterlogged or very heavy clay sites.

CRITICAL Planting Strategy - Hide the Daytime Appearance:
Because Night Scented Stock looks genuinely scruffy, wilted, and rather unattractive during daylight hours, it's absolutely essential to plant it strategically where its daytime appearance won't matter:
• Best strategy: Sow behind or intermixed with other plants (like cornflowers, calendula, cosmos) that look beautiful during the day and will mask the Stock's wilted appearance
• Alternative: Plant in areas you don't intensively use during the day (perhaps along a path you walk in the evening, or near an outdoor entertaining area that's only used from 6pm onwards)
• Smart placement: At the very front of borders beneath taller plants, where the scent rises up beautifully but the scruffy foliage is hidden from view
The evening transformation and incredible scent more than compensate for the daytime scruffiness—you just need to plant intelligently!

Ongoing Care:
Watering: Water during very dry spells to keep scent production high (drought-stressed plants produce less fragrance). Otherwise, minimal watering needed once established.

Support: Plants tend to sprawl and flop rather than standing rigidly upright. You can support them with discreet twiggy sticks if growing alone, or better still, grow them through and amongst other plants which will naturally hold them up.

Feeding: Not necessary—they thrive on neglect!

Deadheading: Not required. Just let them flower naturally for their 6-8 week period, then pull out spent plants and replace with your next succession sowing coming through!

Container Growing:
Night Scented Stock performs brilliantly in containers, pots, and window boxes! This is actually one of the very best ways to grow it because you can position pots precisely where you sit in the evening (on patios, decks, near benches) for maximum scent enjoyment. Sow seeds directly into the final container—do NOT attempt to transplant!

Because Night Scented Stock looks rather scruffy during daylight hours, pair it strategically with plants that look stunning in sunlight whilst also enhancing the magical evening sensory experience:

• 🌙 Nicotiana sylvestris 'White Trumpets': The Ultimate, Absolute, Unbeatable Scent Duo! This is genuinely THE definitive evening fragrance partnership—if you only create one scented plant combination in your entire life, make it this one! Whilst low-growing Night Scented Stock (30-45cm) carpets the ground and releases its powerful vanilla-spice-clove perfume, tall, stately, architectural Nicotiana 'White Trumpets' towers above (1.2-1.5m tall) with its cascading fountains of long, tubular pure white flowers releasing their own intense jasmine-honeysuckle fragrance. Both plants are specifically evolved for evening performance—they both release their strongest, most powerful scent precisely at dusk to attract night-flying moths. The combination creates an absolutely intoxicating, multi-layered, complex fragrance cloud that envelops you completely from ground level right up to head height and beyond! It's extraordinarily powerful, deeply romantic, and genuinely transformative. The scent is so strong and all-encompassing that a relatively small planting area (perhaps just 2m x 2m) containing both species can perfume an entire large patio, seating area, or even drift through open windows into your house! The visual partnership works beautifully too during the day: the tall, dramatic white Nicotiana trumpets provide stunning architectural structure and daytime visual interest, gracefully masking the scruffy, wilted appearance of the Stock growing low beneath. Then at dusk, magic happens—both plants simultaneously wake up, the Nicotiana trumpets seem to glow luminously white in the fading light whilst the Stock flowers open and perk up, and the combined perfume is released in waves. It's pure garden theatre and creates utterly unforgettable summer evening memories! Plant low Night Scented Stock around the base of tall Nicotiana near patios, beneath bedroom windows, or anywhere you sit, relax, or entertain outside in the evening. This combination is life-enhancing!
• 🔵 Cornflower 'Blue Ball': The Daytime Distractor Strategy! This partnership is all about clever, strategic planting to maximise beauty throughout the entire 24-hour cycle. During daylight hours when Night Scented Stock looks wilted, scruffy, and unappealing, tall (up to 90cm), upright Cornflower 'Blue Ball' provides absolutely stunning visual interest with its masses of fully double, ruffled, vivid electric-blue pompom blooms that seem to glow brilliantly in sunlight. The intense azure-blue flowers create spectacular daytime colour, structure, and form, completely masking and distracting from the droopy pale lilac Stock flowers growing low beneath. The cornflowers essentially act as beautiful daytime camouflage! Both plants share identical growing requirements (full sun, well-drained lean soil, direct sowing essential, no feeding needed), making them perfect companions culturally. Both are also hardy annuals that can be sown together in the same patch at the same time. The heights work brilliantly—tall blue Cornflowers at 90cm create vertical interest and structure, whilst low sprawling Stock at 30-45cm fills the base layer. Then at dusk, whilst the Cornflowers close up for the night, the Night Scented Stock takes over the sensory show, opening its flowers and releasing that extraordinary perfume that fills the evening air! It's a perfect day/night partnership where each plant performs when the other is resting. The combination creates borders and containers that look beautiful AND smell divine throughout the entire day-to-night cycle! Sow them together in mixed patches for a completely integrated, naturalistic effect.

Sow directly outdoors March-June (succession sowing every 3 weeks!). Flowers June-October.