Gilia tricolor Felicitas - Bird's Eye seeds

Gilia tricolor Felicitas is a charming, easy to grow and beautifully coloured annual, often underused in our gardens despite its endless flowering and tendency to self-seed just like nigellas. Its small bells of variable colour ranging from white to pink to mauve and violet have a dark violet spotted throat that provides a striking contrast and will attract bees. It will flower from spring to late summer depending on the sowing date and climate. It is easy-to-grow in well-drained soil, essential in a meadow, where it will thrive alongside other wild annual plants. Graceful and versatile, it is also an excellent companion for terrace flowers, in flower pots and containers.

Gilia tricolor Felicitas is a plant in the polemoniaceae family, just like Phlox and Polemonium. Its ancestor, also known as "Bird's Eyes", is native to California, where entire slopes are often covered with its eye-catching, tricoloured flowers. It is a herbaceous annual plant, with a life cycle of only a few months. It forms a branched clump that reaches an average height of 60 cm (24in) and a width of 20 cm (8in), composed of leafy stems. The delicate foliage consists of entire leaves divided into thin, vibrant green lobes. In spring or summer (July, August, September), stems appear at their tips with solitary flowers or flowers clustered in small panicles. These are 1.5 cm (1in) in diameter flowers, with 5 petals fused at the base. The prominent blue stamens are arranged around the pale yellow throat, on a circle of dark violet. They attract numerous pollinating insects. Flowering is followed by numerous seeds that germinate easily where they fall.

Gilia tricolor Felicitas can be sown directly in place, it is relatively hardy and tolerates heat and summer drought well as it adapts its vegetative cycle to the climate. In a wildflower bed or meadow, it can be paired with cosmos, nigellas, California poppies, phacelia, sainfoin, Buenos Aires verbena and clarkias. It fits well in dry beds, alongside shrubby salvias, toadflaxes, and grasses like stipa tenuifolia or Muhlenbergia capillaris. It is a spontaneous flower, charming in pots with nemophilas, petunias, and florist geraniums...