The Celosia Fire Pit

 One of my favorite displays of Annuals year to year is my Celosia firepit.  We had purchased this firepit with the intention of using it as a firepit, but then we built a larger one into the ground.  Besides, this one is too small.  My husband only knows how to build ceremonial bonfires, and this little firepit wouldn't hold them.  It was my husband's idea to use it as a planter instead.  The first year I planted Dahlias in it but then I landed on the idea of Celosia.  It took me a couple of tries to find a variety of Celosia that looked just like I wanted, but after that I was able to let them reseed themselves year after year.

They just got thicker and thicker, but over the years, the soil level got lower and lower.  Every fall when I pulled them out the root balls took more soil with them.  It got to the point where I needed to add two or three inches of soil to bring the level back up.  I have the fire ring filled half way with gravel, and the thin soil was becoming difficult to maintain.  Celosia do not require much water, but still, the shallow soil and little watering made their roots hotter and hotter.

Adding three or four inches of potting soil would bury the existing seeds too deeply.  The seeds are about the size of poppy seeds.  They need to be scattered on top of the soil to germinate.  But that's OK, because as you can see, the red color was beginning to take over.  The planter was due for a total reset.  So I ordered two packets of the Century Mix that I started with and decided to direct sow them instead of struggling with them under grow lights.  I just wanted to replicate what nature had been doing.

The thing about Celosia is that it does not transplant real well.  The root systems are small and delicate and do not recover easily.  Many times I have planted transplants from the greenhouse and had them do not too much.  I have tried starting my own seeds, and sometimes the plants do not make it to planting size for me.  But obviously, in a reseeding situation, the plants thrive.  So starting in March, I began sprinkling a few seeds here and there and I covered the soil with a polycarbonate greenhouse panel to keep it warm and prevent heavy rain from washing the seeds away.

I kept the cover on until mid-May when the plants got too tall, and I watered the soil lightly every time I was out there.    The germination has been slow and I have actually scooped up and relocated a few of them to evenly distribute the plants.  But in the end I sowed 100 seeds and I am getting happy plants.  And, just as importantly, they are not all red!

The seeds are still germinating.  After the last rain I counted almost a dozen baby plants popping up.

It won't be long until the plants are thick and blooming again and they can go on reseeding themselves for years to come.