Matthiola incana 'Vintage White' seedlings: growing like weeds!

I had to leave town suddenly for two weeks, but these babies did fine without me! (Covered with cling film to prevent drying out). It was great to come home to brand new healthy seedlings (although now that they're not covered I see the cats are pruning them). I'm not sure if I should prick them out now or wait until they have true leaves. Thoughts, anyone?

Matthiola incana 'Vintage White' seeds: a promise of a fragrant summer!

I've grown Matthiola incana (stocks, giroflée) in the past from bedding plants (here's a pretty picture of 'Midget Lavender' from 2007), but this is my first time growing these tender biennials (treated as annuals in Toronto) from seed.

Stocks are not native to North America, and I don't know if they have much wildlife value apart from being a larval host for the cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae, petit blanc du chou, also not native). But I am a sucker for fragrance, and this flower smells heavenly.

I was pleased to find that the seeds are easy to handle, about the same size and a similar colour to fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum, fenugrec), so much so that I thought they must be closely related (they aren't).

I've picked up a window box cheap at Value Village and I'm planning to fill it up with home-grown sweetly scented stocks outside my bedroom window (along with some Nemophilia menziesii 'Penny Black' (baby black eyes, némophile) for contrast).

Matthiola incana 'Vintage' series

Matthiola incana, known in English as "garden stock", "ten-week stock", or "gillyflower", and in French as matthiole, giroflée quarantaine, giroflée des jardins, giroflée rouge, quarantaine or violier, is tender biennial (grown as an annual in Toronto) native to Eurasia. It bears spikes of deliciously fragrent flowers in a variety of colours.

A whole slew of bedding plants, including these 'Vintage' series stocks, have arrived at the corner store (Mimi's Convenience, 1686 Danforth), and are testing my resolve to grow everything from seed this year wherever possible.

I knew I should have ordered some seeds for stocks when I was placing my order with Stokes. (I did pick up some seeds for night-scented stocks, Matthiola longipetala, at Canadian Tire, but I haven't started them yet, and I don't know if they'll smell the same.)

The 'Vintage' series of stocks comes in a wide range of colours, including not only the 'Vintage Yellow', 'Vintage Peach', 'Vintage Lavender', and 'Vintage Copper' in this post, but also 'Vintage Red', 'Vintage Burgundy', and 'Vintage White', and has a height of about 25 cm. I think the "copper" is particularly interesting.

Matthiola incana 'Midget Lavender'

Matthiola incana, known in English as "stock", "common stock", or "hoary stock" and in French as matthiole, giroflée quarantaine, giroflée des jardins, giroflée rouge, quarantaine, or violier, is a tender biennial (grown as an annual in Toronto gardens) native to Eurasia, with spikes of delicously fragrant flowers in a variety of colours. The 'Midget' series of cultivars are about 30 cm tall.