Sow plants now to get the summer wow factor
TO RAISE your own bedding plants for planting out this summer, you need to make plans now. In recent years, the use of bedding flowers in gardens declined somewhat as these need more time and care than perennial flowers that come up year after year. But there is a growing realisation that bedding flowers can deliver more flower power than any other kind of flowers, and their weakness can be their strength in that the need to replace them each year means different kinds can be used and more variation created. Their other big advantage is that they are only planted out in May and are killed by frost in October or early November, bringing a dramatic seasonal change to the garden. Either buy ready-grown plants and plant them out at the end of May or sow seeds in early spring and grow your own plants. The ready-grown plants are handy and not very expensive but they do cost more than raising your own. Ideally, you’ll have a small heated propagator and a greenhouse for raising your own plants, but a lot can be done by sprouting seeds in a warm kitchen and using bright window sills or a porch to grow them on.
Do your homework
Start by checking seed catalogues, websites and garden centres to examine the seed choices. There are new varieties each year and most are improvements on older ones, usually being more robust and weather-proof. Apart from bedding plants, it is also possible to raise many kinds of perennial flowers from seeds and the catalogues offer a good selection. This is a very cheap and easy way of raising perennial flowers, especially if large numbers of plants are needed for a new garden.
For best results, because the summer season is so short, the seeds of bedding plants need to be sown between mid-January and mid-March. The early-sown kinds include some of the longest flowering kinds, such as busy lizzies, bedding begonias, bedding geraniums, lobelia, verbena, and salvias. Lavatera, French marigolds, dahlias, cosmos, mimulus and others can be sown between mid-February and mid-March.
Summer bedding plants generally have a fairly high germination temperature because they are native to warm climates and need to be started off in gentle heat, either in an electric propagator or in a warm kitchen. Be careful not to over-water the compost before sowing or afterwards. Fill the seed trays or pots with seed- or multi-purpose compost, firm it gently and water lightly before sowing the seeds. Allow the compost to drain for a half-hour before sowing.
Sow them up
Sow the seeds onto the drained surface and cover lightly with vermiculite or seed compost passed through a fairly fine soil sieve. Vermiculite is a very soft, light substance, which keeps seeds moist but allows plenty of oxygen which is important for germination.
Cover the trays with glass or clear plastic and a single sheet of newspaper until germination begins. As soon as they germinate, the seedlings must have bright light, and the newspaper is removed on a dull day. Be careful not to scorch the young seedlings with bright sunshine in their first few days. When they are a week to two weeks germinated, the seedlings can be placed in an unheated greenhouse where sun-heat will be adequate to keep them going. Because these are mostly tender plants, and not capable of withstanding any frost, they will need to be protected with a frostprotection heater or brought back into the house during cold spells. The seedlings should be transplanted, or ‘pricked out’, into cell trays or small pots as soon as the seed leaves have expanded but before the first true leaf develops. At this stage the seedlings’ roots have not branched, or have branched very little. This means there is very little disruption of the roots and they get no setback. Delayed pricking out can cause a severe setback and the loss of seedlings. At pricking out, use the same seed compost, watering it before pricking out the seedlings.
Go easy on the water
Keep the seedlings lightly watered, never wet, until they are ready for planting out. In dull weather, or cold weather, do not water at all. About one month after pricking out, the seedlings can be given half-strength liquid feed. Stop feeding and reduce watering a couple of weeks before planting out to toughen the plants, which will need to be hardened off by being put outdoors by day for a week or so before planting out. Although it seems there is a lot to it, it is very easy — and satisfying to raise plants from seeds.