Growing flowers from seed for beginners: An easy way to grow flowers from seed
An exclusive excerpt from the book FLOWER NOTES by Jora Dahl and Marion Rekersdrees
Sowing seeds used to seem like some kind of secret science to me. Back then, I'd rush to the garden center and come back with large, expensive potted plants that hadn't bloomed a week later. What have I been missing! Growing flowers from seed is the cheapest, most sustainable, and most floriferous way to garden. Here's a quick and easy guide for anyone who's never tried it.
You need:
• Small plantable potty or one Multi-pot plate
• Special Seed starting mix
• Small Watering can with a fine shower head or Ball shower
• seeds
• If necessary Wooden labels for labeling
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1. Fill the pots with soil, water gently, and place a seed in a small hole that you make with a pen (except for light-dependent germinators: simply scatter these on the soil).
2. Place in a warm spot on the windowsill with plenty of light and keep the soil moist.
3. After a short time, a small seedling will appear. You should fertilize for the first time four weeks after germination, and the plant can be moved outdoors no earlier than mid-May.
Things you need to pay particular attention to:
Once you get the hang of it, you'll be growing your own plants every year. However, mistakes are common at the beginning, and motivation quickly wanes. I've made them all – so here are my best tips for a fantastic start as a flower gardener:
• It's all a matter of timing: Don't start too early. In February, your seedlings still need artificial light, which complicates things. Only Cool Flowers can be sown directly outdoors in the cold spring. All other varieties need to be brought indoors by mid-March.
• Too much heat combined with too little light causes the plants to become leggy: they shoot up, develop long, thin stems, and eventually topple over. Solution: more light, less heat.
• Only one seedling should grow in each pot. Carefully remove the others and plant them in a new pot (this is called pricking out). Otherwise, the competition for nutrients will simply be too great.
• Speaking of nutrients: potting soil It is very low in nutrients. Larger young plants need more, which is why fertilizing is really necessary for most varieties. Organic liquid fertilizer Every one to two weeks is mandatory!
• Despite climate change, the risk of frost in Germany doesn't end until mid-May (after the "Ice Saints"). All non-hardy plants really shouldn't be moved outdoors until then. A single frosty day, and all the effort will have been for nothing.
Impatience is always a mistake: It usually takes three months for seeds to grow into a substantial plant. Many who despair in June ("They just won't grow!") are rewarded with a sea of blossoms in August. Early summer is the time for flower bulbs, perennials, and so-called... Cool Flowers (Hardy annuals, see tips in September). Non-hardy summer flowers and dahlias enchant us with their splendor from July/August until the first frost!
If you want to plan your cut flower garden with the FLOWER NOTES, Click here!
