How to Grow Five Spot Flower? : You can Grow Nemophilia Maculata or a five Spot flower from seeds. Prepare soft soil with good drainage. Sow the seeds and keep the soil moist for 2 to 4 weeks. The seedlings will germinate within 28 days and they will take another 45 to 60 days to bloom.
Five Spot flower is also known as Blue eyes flower or buffalo flower. They are ideal to grow in USDA zone 3 through 9. Grow them in partial shade especially in hooter regions. You can also grow five-spot flowers in fall throughout summer in areas with mild winter.
The Blue eyes flower prefers soft moist well-drained healthy nutritious soil. Although you can grow them in any soil type even in poor sandy soil. Just add a little bit of organic compost before sowing the seed and everything is done.
Check out my previous post: What is 312 Fertilizer and How to use it? Plant Care
Five Spot Flower Plant Basic Info
- Common Name: Five Spot Flower, Baby Blue Eyes, Buffalo Eyes
- Botanical Name: Nemophila Maculata
- Origin: North America
- Location: USDA Agricultural Zone 3 to 9. Five-spot plants prefer meadow areas.
- Plant Type: Annual Herb, Flowering Plant.
- Plant Size: 6 to 9 inches. These plants can grow up to a maximum of 12 inches in the best conditions.
- Flowers: Bright white Flowers with purple vines and spot on the tip of each petal. Each flower has five petals with a purple spot and this gives it the unique name- The Five Spot Flower.
- Blooming Season: Five-spot or blue eyes flowers bloom from spring through summer.
- Soil Type: Five-spot plants prefer soft, moist, nutrition-rich soil. The soil should have a neutral to slightly acidic ph value i.e. 6.0 to 6.8. It must have good drainage.
- Sunlight: Minimum of 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight is required for a Five-spot flower plant. Although it can bloom fairly in partial shade especially in hotter zones.
- Water: Regular watering is essential to keep the soil moist. This plant requires well-drained moist soil throughout its life cycle.
- Nutrition: 2 to 4 inches of organic compost is essential to growing Five-spot plants. These plants require good nourishment for blooming although they can survive in poor soil conditions.
- Propagation: You can propagate a Five-spot flower from its seeds.
How to propagate Five Spot Flower?
You can propagate a Five Spot Flower or Nemophilia Maculata for seeds. Each plant can have dozens of blooms at a time. These beautiful blooms produce lots of tiny seeds in small seed pods. The blue eyes or five spot plants are self-seeding plants.
An established patch of plants can bloom and produce seeds. These seeds fall and regrow to fill the empty space in the surrounding. In this way, the plant keeps continuing its generation for years. It can double up its initial growing area within a couple of seasons.
Once grown successfully, there is no need to reseed the flower beds again. The five-spot flower will come back again every year.
Although you can collect and sow the seeds in new flower beds. It is pretty simple and does not require any extra effort.
Nemophila Maculata plants prefer to grow in groups. Therefore seeds are the best way to propagate these beautiful flowering plants. Go ahead and give it a try, you’ll love the results.
Where to Grow Five Spot Flower?
Five Spot flowers are native to North America. These plants prefer to grow in meadow areas. They look best in flat flower beds, especially on the edges.
Nemophila Maculata is an annual spring to summer flowering plant. It can be easily grown in USDA Agricultural zone 4 through 9. Although you can easily grow these plants anywhere throughout the country. It only requires nutritious soil and proper sunlight.
Proper sunlight is essential for bud formation. Therefore choose an open area where the plants can receive full sunlight throughout the days.
Overall you can grow five-spot flowers anywhere in the garden or containers. Five-spot flowers look great in hanging baskets.
Also read: How to Grow Coreopsis: Tickseed Flowers?
When to Grow Five Spot Plant: Nemophilia Maculata?
Sow the seeds of the five-spot plant early in spring or in late fall. You must decide this timing according to your local climatic conditions.
These seeds will require 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit to germinate. So if you don’t experience freezing winter then sow the seeds in fall. Otherwise, the Early spring season is the right time to sow five-spot flower seeds.
Just wait for the soil to de-freeze after the last frost. It is better to wait at least 1 week after the final frost night in the spring season.
Mid-February to the first week of April is the perfect time to sow Five Spot flower seeds in the garden. Sow the seeds twice or thrice within 2 weeks. This will ensure proper germination and continuous blooming with the gradual increase in temperature.
Soil Preparation for Five Spot Flower Plant
Prepare raised beds for Five Spot flowers. They prefer flat meadow conditions. The choice of soil type is not very important. These plants can adapt easily to a variety of soil. They don’t mind growing in poor sandy soil or clay. Everything is once the plants are fully established. You can grow the Five Spot Flowers in a rock garden or on the edge of flower beds.
They look great with other low-lying flowers. It just needs soil with good drainage that’s all. Although I prefer mixing 30% compost in each container for five-spot plants. A little bit of Compost can boost plant growth and you will get lots of flowers throughout the season.
Rake the garden beds and loosen the top 5 to 10 inches of soil. Add a 2 to 4-inch Compost layer on the top and rake it thoroughly. Let this area dry and rate for a couple of days. Latter water the beds and sprinkle the tiny five-spot seeds on top of it.
Water and Nutrition management for Nemophilia Maculata
You should after the clump of five-spot flower at least once or twice per week. The soil should have sufficient moisture throughout the plant’s life. These plants don’t like dry soil conditions for too long. It is possible that the plants won’t die due to dehydration but they will lose their strength of blooming. Eventually, dehydration may stop the bud formation in Nemophilia Maculata.
Therefore Irrigate the Five Spot flower plant with at least 1-inch water per week. Don’t overwater as it may cause some diseases mostly due to heavy pest attacks.
Five Spot plants usually don’t require much use of fertilizers. Once the plants are established they can thrive without external support. Still, it is better to feed them occasionally with balanced liquid fertilizers. Seaweed extract works great for these delicate flowers. You can also use water-soluble NPK 5:10:10 once in 15 days. Dilute the mixture at 1 or 2% concentration i.e. 10 to 15 gm or ml per liter of water. Too much use of any fertilizer can harm the plants. You can use compost for enriching the soil twice during the season. Avoid putting it on the foliage or near stems else it can burn the plant.
Always keep the soil well hydrated and remove any weed or grass growing near the flower beds.
Check out: How to Grow Flower of an Hour: Hibiscus Trionum
How to grow a Five Spot Flower Plant?
Prepare soft loose soil for seed germination. Start with cleaning and turning the top 2 to 5 inches of the soil. Also, remove anything hard that you can find. Next, mix dry-aged compost with the topsoil and get ready for sowing Five-spot flower seeds.
Finally, Buy some Five Spot Flower seeds. You can get some of these from your local garden store or online. Try to find it by the name Blue Eyes flower, or buffalo eyes flower. It is known by many names therefore make sure you get what you are searching for.
- Sow the Blue eyes or Five-spot flower seeds on the soil surface.
- You can sprinkle a very thin layer of soil to cover the seeds. As an alternative, you can also gently rake the topsoil to submerge the seed in it. Both of these techniques work, just use them according to the texture and density of the soil.
- Each seed must have sufficient distance from others. Even distribution also helps during the transplantation of the seedlings.
- Water the soil with sprinklers. Avoid pouring water with tumblers or pipes as it may erode the seeds for their position.
- Keep the soil moist and warm for 2 to 4 weeks.
- The Five Spot flower seeds will germinate in 8 to 25 days at 50 to 62 degrees Fahrenheit.
- You can transplant these seedlings once they are 3 to 5 inches in height with 4 or more true leaf sets.
- If the plants are too crowded in the beds then tin out some seedlings in between. try to maintain a 4 to 6-inch gap between each seedling for better growth.
- Care for these seedlings, feed them with all-purpose fertilizers once in 15 days.
- The Five-spot plants will be ready to bloom in 45 to 60 after germination. It may take a longer duration sometimes especially in colder regions.
- The Five-spot flower will start blooming in mid-spring around March or April and it will last till summer in August. This timing may differ according to your Agricultural zone.
Common Pest Problems with Five Spot plant
Five-spot flowers are not prone to any serious pest problems. You can only face problems if you mismanage the watering cycle.
Overwatering is the prime cause of every problem in Five-spot plants. Too much water attracts aphids, gnats, mealybugs, caterpillars, and powdery mildew.
There is a simple solution for all of these pest problems. Just stop overwatering, let the foliage dry and soil aerate. This is all you need to do. If the problems persist then use Neem oil and soap spray twice every week. This should be sufficient to deter most pests and bugs away from five Spot plants.
In worst cases, simply remove the infected plants away from healthy ones.
