Spring SOWINGS
It’s the start of the year’s main seed-sowing season, beginning with easy hardy annuals which, sown now, will provide flowers this summer
Straddling the spring equinox, March can be an unpredictable month: ‘In like a lion, out like a lamb’, as the old saying goes. But with the change of season comes lengthening days, warming soil and a surge in plant growth with the promise of a feast of flowers to come.
You may have already sown in August or September last year the seed of annuals that you want to flower later this year. These late-summer sowings will provide earlier-flowering, larger plants, but now, from March to mid-May, is also a good time to sow another batch.
Annuals complete their life cycle in a single season, flowering, setting seed and dying over a few months. They can be divided into two groups: hardy and half-hardy.
Hardy annuals include cut flower favourite Ammi majus, nigella or love-in-amist, centaurea (above), and calendula. These can all be sown directly in their flowering site in spring. Rake the soil to a fine crumb and sow the seed thinly along shallow drills, before covering with soil and watering. Many hardy annuals can simply be left to self-seed in subsequent years, although some editing may be necessary for prolific seeders.
Half-hardy annuals are those that would be damaged by a spring frost and include zinnia, cosmos, cleome and nicotiana. These need to be sown under glass in early spring and hardened o in a coldframe before being planted out when the danger of frost has completely passed.
There is something very satisfying about raising your own plants. The eects may not be immediate, but the rewards are immensely satisfying.