How to Grow Flax from Seed
Find the seeds of the correct flax species., Try shopping online for Linum usitatissiumum and other rarer species of flax.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Find the seeds of the correct flax species.
There are hundreds of species of Linum in the world.
Only two blue species are commonly grown in gardens.
These mainly look very similar in appearance and are only identifiable to a beginning botanist or gardener by the life cycle of the plant.
One is annual meaning it germinates (sprouts from seed), grows and flowers then dies within a year.
The other species is a perennial plant meaning it flowers and survives the remaining season as a dormant (sleeping) root and comes back for many years in appropriate climates.
Both species look very similar with 2 to 4 feet tall arching stems with greyish-blue green needle-like leaves that look somewhat like a blue spruce sapling but soft and flexible.
These plants have a deep taproot shaped like a skinny carrot and don't like being transplanted (moved) once established.
Early summer to late summer the plant produces beautiful 5 petaled sky blue flowers that last only a day each but are produced in such large numbers from hanging tear shaped buds that the plant is literally covered in blooms for a 1 to 3 months.
Linum usitatissimum or Common Flax is the one that's used for making linen fabric and linseed oil used as food.
Flax seed of this species is also used for food consumption as well.
This plant is the annual.
Linum perenne or Perennial Flax is the almost exact twin. Linum lewisii native wildflower of North America is or is not depending to different experts, a subspecies (part of an isolated population) of Linum perenne.
This one is the perennial.
There are other flax species that produce red (Linum grandiflorum) pink and yellow flowers (golden flax (Linum. flavum). as well. -
Step 2: Try shopping online for Linum usitatissiumum and other rarer species of flax.
Although it's commonly used in agriculture for food and fabric production, Linum usitatissimum is not readily available in many garden centers.
Type the name of the species you want in a search engine like Google and you will find many online garden shops and seed shops that sell the seeds.
Linum perenne is the one sold in seed packs in many garden centers.
The same goes for more unusual and rarer Linum species.
If there's a flax species you want to try but have little information about it's growing conditions and/or seed germination requirements you can always ask the person in the shop via chat or email or talk to experts on many garden forums.
With any plant group there's always possible exceptions to the rules and this article is very general.
Detailed Guide
There are hundreds of species of Linum in the world.
Only two blue species are commonly grown in gardens.
These mainly look very similar in appearance and are only identifiable to a beginning botanist or gardener by the life cycle of the plant.
One is annual meaning it germinates (sprouts from seed), grows and flowers then dies within a year.
The other species is a perennial plant meaning it flowers and survives the remaining season as a dormant (sleeping) root and comes back for many years in appropriate climates.
Both species look very similar with 2 to 4 feet tall arching stems with greyish-blue green needle-like leaves that look somewhat like a blue spruce sapling but soft and flexible.
These plants have a deep taproot shaped like a skinny carrot and don't like being transplanted (moved) once established.
Early summer to late summer the plant produces beautiful 5 petaled sky blue flowers that last only a day each but are produced in such large numbers from hanging tear shaped buds that the plant is literally covered in blooms for a 1 to 3 months.
Linum usitatissimum or Common Flax is the one that's used for making linen fabric and linseed oil used as food.
Flax seed of this species is also used for food consumption as well.
This plant is the annual.
Linum perenne or Perennial Flax is the almost exact twin. Linum lewisii native wildflower of North America is or is not depending to different experts, a subspecies (part of an isolated population) of Linum perenne.
This one is the perennial.
There are other flax species that produce red (Linum grandiflorum) pink and yellow flowers (golden flax (Linum. flavum). as well.
Although it's commonly used in agriculture for food and fabric production, Linum usitatissimum is not readily available in many garden centers.
Type the name of the species you want in a search engine like Google and you will find many online garden shops and seed shops that sell the seeds.
Linum perenne is the one sold in seed packs in many garden centers.
The same goes for more unusual and rarer Linum species.
If there's a flax species you want to try but have little information about it's growing conditions and/or seed germination requirements you can always ask the person in the shop via chat or email or talk to experts on many garden forums.
With any plant group there's always possible exceptions to the rules and this article is very general.
About the Author
Kathryn Campbell
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow organization tutorials.
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