Sow now for a summer spectacular
Want your garden to be a blaze of colour this summer, without spending too much money? Carol reveals the best statement flowers to sow now
Carol shares her favourite flowers to grow from seed and how to get results
Are you dreaming of summer colour already? Borders bursting with blooms and containers overf lowing with f lowers? It’s a tantalising prospect in the midst of winter. However, if you are anything like me, coffers are low at this time of year and you’re having to watch the pennies. Investing in a few packets of seeds and sowing them now can return immense dividends. Not only can it deliver a scintillating show for next to nothing, but it is also especially rewarding as you nurture your plants from seed to maturity. For many devoted gardeners it’s an annual ritual to raise their own bedding plants for baskets, containers or planting schemes. But there is a whole different range of flamboyant f lowers that can add a much bigger, more dramatic kick to summer schemes and keep beds, borders and containers looking vibrant right through into autumn. Many of these glamorous blooms come from Mexico and they’re often members of the biggest-flowering plant family – Asteraceae – which means they are likely to have large, conspicuous petals in bee-attracting colours. Dahlias are perhaps their archetype – being ostentatious and gay. The usual way to bring dahlias into your garden is to buy tubers, but a far cheaper way of making lots of plants is to grow them from seed. You’ll find a comprehensive range of seed strains, but for me, nothing can beat Dahlia ‘Bishop’s Children’: bronze-leaved, with single flowers in dazzling colours. Cosmos are cousins to dahlias and equally easy to grow from seed. There is a vast array, ranging from the traditional Cosmos
It’s always tempting to sow the whole packet of seeds, ‘just to be on the safe side’
bipinnatus varieties, often in pinks and whites, through to the more fiery reds, oranges and yellows of Cosmos sulphureus. If you baulk at the cost of buying perennial chocolate cosmos ( Cosmos atrosanguineus) I tried it from seed and managed to make about 20 plants for the price of just one potted plant. It is the perfect companion for two other plants from Central/ South America, whose seeds you can sow now: Nicotiana langsdorffii, which is one of the most understated of the flowering tobaccos, having slender green bells with blue anthers; and Salvia patens ‘Cambridge Blue’, which completes the trio, whose colours and elegant flowers combine to create a mellow display. The cosmos seed is similar to mini-dahlia seed – fine, slender and black. All nicotiana seeds, even those of the giant Nicotiana sylvestris, are tiny and must be sown ultra finely. Salvia seed is larger and can be grasped individually between finger and thumb, which makes it an ideal candidate for sowing in modules.
The science of seed sowing
There is seldom the necessity to do anything with most seeds other than sprinkle them into the palm of your hand and sow them. Some seed, however, benefits from special treatment. A few seeds may respond to being soaked in warm water, where their seedcoat may be broken down to allow the radicle – or root – to start its quest into the compost. Ipomoea, from morning glory to Spanish flag, all benefit from the warm water treatment. I also follow this practice with sweet peas, but never leave any seeds for longer than 12 hours. After soaking, drain the water and sow them straight away. It’s always tempting when faced with a packet containing lots of seeds to sow them all, ‘just to be on the safe side’, but this is almost invariably a mistake. Providing the seed is viable, it’s almost certainly going to germinate, and no matter how healthy those seedlings are to begin with, they’ll quickly become overcrowded and are likely to succumb to ‘damping off’ disease. This is caused by a fungus that rapidly destroys seemingly healthy infant seedlings, causing them to keel over. It spreads rapidly through a batch, and it’s almost impossible to stop once it has set in. Prevention is better than cure.
Why sow now?
Though seed can be sown throughout the year, February is the perfect time to have a go with half-hardy annuals, tender perennials and climbers, and a whole host of hardy perennials. The reason for sowing now is that the earlier they’re sown, the earlier they’ll come into flower and the longer their growing season will be. Though in their early days they may need a little molly-coddling, by the time the weather is fit for them to go out, once frosts have passed, they
should be strong plants. The great majority of the showiest half-hardy annuals come from sub-tropical zones and their flowers tend to be exuberant and vividly coloured. They are fast- growing, so once they’ve germinated they come on by leaps and bounds, and just months later they are f linging themselves into a high-energy performance in full f lower through summer and autumn. Sunflowers, Tithonia, coreopsis and Gazania all perform brilliantly given a sunny position and soil that is not too rich. Flowering is often most prolific when plants are slightly stressed. Another advantage of sowing under cover now, rather than scattering seeds willy-nilly outdoors later in the year, is that your plants will have plenty of room to expand and be themselves. They have the edge, too, when it comes to container planting because schemes can be planned and executed. In addition to the daisies, there are so many exciting plants to try for a February sowing, from cerinthe, with its strange purple bracts, to the frothy flowers of umbels, such as ammi and orlaya. Sowing seed opens up so many possibilities and broadens the spectrum of what you can grow in your garden. And all it costs is a few pounds. Sharing seed gives you access to an even wider repertoire and makes for friendly social exchanges. Sharing information and experience about your seeds and their progress makes the whole exercise more fun. So what have you got to lose?