Earlier this week, I started a bunch of flowers in flats in the greenhouse. Most of them are flowers that are beneficial to a vegetable garden: sunflowers, marigolds, nasturtiums. And I also started some cosmos, just because I think they are pretty. Unfortunately, I neglected to get more cosmos seeds, and had very few left. I can't be bothered to buy more now, so I'll have to make do with what I have.
I started 3 different types of marigolds. If you don't grow marigolds from seed yourself, you might be surprised by what the seeds look like. Not very seed-like ... they kind of look like toothpicks.
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| My hand looks really weird? |
But they grow fast ... here they are after 6 days.
And for contrast, here are nasturtium seeds. Because they are so large, it takes extra time to break down the "shell", so there are no signs of them yet. But it shouldn't be much longer. Nasturtiums grow quite quickly.
I also started some "Kong" sunflowers. I've grown them in previous years and they never quite get to the 14 foot description - more like 9-10 feet so still pretty cool. As usual, I started them too soon. They grow quickly (again, this is 6 days):
I'll usually buy some pansies or petunias - I've never tried them from seed before but they are pretty cheap to buy locally. In the meantime, I've got a few perennial flowers popping up around the yard (grape hyacinth, two pics of daffodils, crocus).
I used to do cosmos every year. But here the mildew makes them so ugly by August. I decided to not grow them anymore. Now I tend to grow a lot of zinnias. The bees just love them. Especially the bumble bees. Most of them are up now, but it will be a couple weeks before they get outdoors.
ReplyDeleteI don't know very much about flowers ... I tried zinnias once but they were a dwarf version and didn't grow well (I had them in containers). Maybe I'll try more next year - I love trying new flowers!
DeleteLooks like we are growing many of the same flowers. My daughter is also going to be growing a few new ones as she wants to grow both flowers and veg in her part of the kids bed. Like you, I don't have much experience with flowers, but really enjoy those few varieties that I have grown - I'm thinking that I'll probably add one or two each year.
ReplyDeleteI like your yellow wellies! Ha ha , your hand doesn't look wierd but I know what you mean, like when I took one of mine with seeds recently, it's funny seeing them in such detail.
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