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Orlaya is a hardy annual grown as an autumn-sown crop. Sown at the end of one growing season, it spends the winter as a low rosette, bulks up fast in spring, flowers from late spring or early summer, and dies as the heat arrives. Everything in the calendar below is either preparation for that or an attempt to lengthen the flowering end of it.
Reverse the seasons for the southern hemisphere; nothing else changes. The plant responds to soil temperature and to the length of the cool season it gets, not to any particular month.
| Season | Main job | Getting it wrong costs |
|---|---|---|
| Late summer to autumn | Sow in place, on lean, well drained ground | A spring-sown plant is a fraction of the size |
| Autumn to early winter | Thin to 4 in (10 cm); slug patrol | A whole patch lost overnight to slugs |
| Late winter | Final thin to 10-12 in (25-30 cm); set netting | Crowded, mildewed, floppy plants |
| Spring | Water deeply in dry spells; raise the net once | Kinked stems that are useless for cutting |
| Early summer | Cut twice a week; do not let seed set | Three weeks of flowering lost |
| Midsummer | Save seed or clear the patch | No volunteers, or too many |
Late summer to autumn: sow, and get the ground right first
Wait for the heat to break and for night temperatures to settle below about 60F (15C), then sow directly into the ground the plants will flower in. Do not enrich the soil; if anything, add coarse grit for drainage. Sow thinly, cover with a quarter of an inch (5 mm) of fine soil, and keep the surface damp for at least six weeks, because germination is erratic and comes in more than one flush over three to four weeks.
This is the one date in the orlaya year that genuinely cannot be recovered later. A sowing made four weeks late still works, but a sowing postponed to spring gives you a different and much smaller plant. If you have missed the window entirely, sow into deep modules in late winter and stand them outdoors to take the cold, and plant out while the seedlings are tiny.
Autumn to late winter: the quiet half of the year
Once the seedlings are up, the plants do very little visible growing until the soil warms, and the jobs are correspondingly small. They are also the jobs people skip, which is why so many patches disappoint.
- Thin once the seedlings have two true leaves Take them to roughly 4 inches (10 cm) apart, snipping at soil level rather than pulling. Do not attempt to move the thinnings; the taproot means they will not establish elsewhere.
- Patrol for slugs on every mild wet evening Through autumn and winter the rosettes are the softest green thing in the bed. A torch and twenty minutes after rain is the most valuable work of the whole season.
- Keep the crowns dry, not the roots Pull organic mulch back from the collars and add a gravel mulch if the ground is heavy. Rotted crowns in late winter are a drainage failure and are entirely preventable at this stage.
- Thin again and set the support before growth restarts Take the plants to a final 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 cm) apart and stretch horizontal netting at about 8 inches (20 cm) above the soil while they are still flat. Both jobs become impossible once the stems run.
Spring to early summer: growth, then the cutting flush
As the soil warms the plants change fast, roughly doubling in width within a fortnight and then throwing branched stems. Raise the netting once, to around 15 inches (38 cm), when the stems have grown through it. Water deeply every 10 to 14 days in a dry spell, at the base and never over the developing heads, and resist any temptation to feed.
First flowers arrive in late spring in a mild climate, early summer elsewhere. From that point the job is cutting: go over the patch twice a week, cut heads whose outer florets have opened but whose centers are still green, always cutting back to a leaf joint so a new branch follows. Cut at dawn, straight into a bucket of water. This is not only how you get flowers for the house; it is the single thing that extends the season, because a plant that sets seed stops making buds.
In a hot climate, give the patch afternoon shade and keep the roots evenly moist as temperatures climb. Once sustained days above roughly 85F (29C) arrive the plants will begin to go over regardless, and no amount of care will hold them.
Do not stop cutting because the vase is full. Deadheading back to a leaf joint has exactly the same effect as cutting for the house, and skipping a week in the main flush is what shortens the season.
Midsummer: decide what you want next year
The end of the season is a choice rather than an event. If you want volunteers or saved seed, stop cutting two or three of your best plants and let their heads cup, brown and dry, then cut the ripe heads into paper bags before the seed sheds. If you want none, keep cutting to the last flower and clear the plants while the heads are still green.
Whichever you choose, clear the spent foliage out of the bed rather than leaving it to lie, particularly if mildew has been present. Then, without much of a gap, you are back at the start of the cycle: the ground for the autumn sowing wants to be lean, firm and freshly raked, not dug over and enriched.
The dates worth writing down
Five entries a year make the next one much easier: the sowing date, the date the first seedlings appeared, the date you did the final thin and set the netting, the date the first umbel opened, and the date the plants started to go over. Add the temperature range in the week you sowed and in the week they declined.
Two seasons of those figures tell you the two things general advice cannot: how early you personally need to sow to get a full-length flowering season, and how much heat your particular garden allows before the plant gives up. Note the position of each patch as well, so you can compare a wet corner against a well drained one honestly rather than from memory.