Watch your seed money blossom
Make 2020 the year that you grow something brand new from a seed, says LOUISE MIDGLEY
SOW a seed, watch it develop into a seedling, nurture it until it matures into a plant which produces flowers or an edible crop and there’s every chance you will become addicted to growing your own plants for years. Factor in the cost of a packet of seeds that may contain either a few large or several hundred small seeds, each at a fraction of the price of a singular plant bought from a garden centre and the maths really does begin to add up.
But the main reason so many ardent gardeners choose to grow their own plants from seed is because the selection of what can be grown is vast compared to the narrow range of plants offered for sale in the retail market.
If you grow vegetables, look to specialist seed suppliers for their heritage varieties, which may vary slightly in appearance and flavour to the commonly grown varieties but are no less inferior and well worth preserving for future generations.
And if you fancy filling your borders with unusual hardy perennials that you may have spotted in the professionallygardened herbaceous borders of a country house, then source the seeds from the many online seed retailers such as Chilternseeds.co.uk or Plant-world-seeds.com which sell a wide mix of flowering plant seeds.
Bear in mind not all hardy perennials flower in their first year, you may have to wait until the following year for their first flush of blooms.
AT THIS time of year look out for any local seed sales organised by gardening clubs and societies.the UK’S biggest and longest running community seed swapping event, Seedy Sunday, takes place at Brighton, Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College, BN3 6EG on February 2 (10.30am to 4pm). For anyone who doesn’t have seeds to swap, a suggested contribution of 50p per pack of seeds is all that is required.
Seed experts and local horticulturists will be on hand to answer questions and in addition to a programme of talks from experts, you can ask the panel questions at their local Gardeners’ Question Time.
The big seed companies can be relied on for seeds of new plant varieties each year. Mr-fothergills.co.uk has introduced a new and exclusive sweet pea called Mayflower 400 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the historic voyage of the Mayflower ship from the UK to America in 1620.
The pretty, frilly, Spencer-type sweet pea has cream petals with pastel pink markings and carries a sweet fragrance. It costs £2.40 for 20 seeds.