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 '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.