Carol sows seeds for summer impact
Now is the perfect time to get a head start on glorious summer colour. Carol Klein explains how, with her pick of plants to grow from seed now
We’re emulating the natural conditions that seeds need, but we’re stealing a march on nature by providing them earlier
Here at Glebe Cottage we sow seeds throughout the year, but it’s now, in February, that sowing starts in earnest. With spring on the way and full of optimism, we clear our little greenhouse of tools and move the overwintering salvias and eucomis to our polytunnel, in preparation for one of the main events of our growing year. But you don’t need a greenhouse to join in this quintessential enterprise. My mum did this same ritual in her kitchen and porch, so perhaps it’s in my blood. Or maybe it’s just a human urge to look forward and prepare for the year ahead.
Why now? Daylight hours are getting longer and although February can be bitterly cold at times, the ambient temperature is gradually rising and will continue to increase. To grow, seeds need light, warmth, water and soil, and we can ensure they get them all and protect them from the worst of the weather, be it in a greenhouse or porch or on a windowsill.
In our climate, most seeds won’t germinate outside in winter, apart from a few toughies like calendulas, aquilegias and love-in-a-mist. Most perennials, biennials and annuals, especially halfhardy annuals, need the protection and nurture we can provide. We’re emulating the natural conditions that seeds need, but we’re stealing a march on nature by providing them earlier, getting our seeds off to a flying start.
We can sow our seeds evenly at just the right depth, we can ensure the compost is sterile and free of fungi and diseases, we can give them the light they require and the right amount of water at exactly the time they need it. When they’re ready to be moved on, we can prick them out carefully so they have the wherewithal to keep on growing into strong healthy plants.
Sow much fun
The range of plants we can grow from seed is vast, and means there’s no need to limit yourself to whatever’s in the garden centre or what you can find in plant catalogues. Seeds also allow you to indulge in generous planting schemes, rather than restricting yourself to a couple of plants and waiting for them to bulk up.
Even more attractive than the wider choice and the money you may save is the satisfaction, not to mention the thrill, of growing from seed. Nothing in gardening is more exhilarating than seeing the first hint of green on the surface of the compost and watching as it turns itself into those first two seed leaves, then gradually grows into a young plant. It’s as thrilling to me now as it was way back when we first came to Glebe Cottage and I made my first foray into growing from seed.
To grow, seeds need light, warmth, water and soil – and we can ensure they get them all
Having run a nursery for 30 years, growing almost everything ourselves, we’re often guilty of sowing too many seeds – and once they’re sown we have a responsibility to look after them, not just as seedlings but as mature plants too. It’s prudent (and I should take my own advice here!) to restrict both the range and quantity of plants you sow, so that eventually they can all have their own place in the garden. You can still sow a few extras as insurance policies and to swap with friends.
Annual favourites
Now is an ideal time to sow half-hardy annuals, such as cosmos, tithonia, French marigolds, ricinus and nicotiana. By sowing them in February and growing them on with protection, you’ll get strong plants that will start flowering early and give colour for months on end.
Hardy annuals will also benefit from an early sowing – cornflowers, calendulas and the glorious umbellifers ammi and orlaya. And while these latter two are superb, bringing clouds of lilting white flowers to soften summer planting, February is a good time to sow perennial umbels too.
The undisputed queen of the umbellifers is Selinum wallichianum, a stately perennial that, when raised from seed, will give you strong plants by autumn, although they may not flower in their first year. But we’re not growing these for instant gratification. Many perennials grown from seed take more than a year to get into their stride, but will increase in stature each year from then on, rewarding you for the trouble you took in helping them into the world.
We have selinum grown from seed next to clumps of my mum’s white phlox, with astrantias close by, also from seed. These are long-term occupants of this bed, but each year I give them different temporary bedfellows for company, such as Ammi majus and her sister Ammi visnaga, Orlaya grandiflora, with its lacecap flowers, or the elegant white cosmos ‘Purity’. They complement each other and share something else in common – they were all sown in February.