The Need for Seed - flower gardening tips - Brief Article

Flower & Garden Magazine, March, 2001 by Nancy Beaubaire

Tips on How to Start Your Annual Flower Garden

Starting an annual flower garden from seed is one of the greatest joys of spring gardening. With the wonderful array of annuals available by seed, you can choose exactly what you want, rather than be limited by locally-available plant varieties. Imagine your garden filled with super-fragrant sweet peas, ruffly-petalled poppies or butterfly-attracting orange tithonias. All are easily grown from seed.

Many annuals can be sown directly in the garden. Follow these tips to help you succeed:

* Choose a site with a minimum of six hours of sun per day during tire growing season. ideal for most annual flowers.

Prepare the soil carefully to ensure good drainage. As soon as the soil can be easily worked (not frozen and not muddy), loosen it to a minimum depth of eight inches. Break up clods. Mix in two-to-four inches of compost or other well-decomposed organic matter. Rake the soil surface smooth.

Start with good quality seeds. Plant at the right time:

* Sow cool-season annuals outdoors in early spring when the air and soil temperatures are cool and the soil can be easily worked. These include sweet peas. calendulas, poppies and larkspur.

* Sow frost-tender annuals, such as sunflowers. zinnias and cosmos, when all danger of frost is past, night temperatures are in the 50s and days are warm.

* Mark off the bed or row to be planted and moisten the soil.

* Evenly broadcast the seeds over an area of the bed or sprinkle them in a shallow furrow. Sow more seeds than the number of plants you actually want. Cover the seeds with finely crumbled soil to the depth recommended on the seed packet, about 1/440- 1/2 inch.

* Label each variety with the plant name and planting date.

* Water the seedbed thoroughly with a fine spray. Check the soil daily; keep it evenly moist until the seeds germinate.

When seedlings develop several sets of leaves, thin them to the spacing recommended on the seed packet. If seedlings are very crowded, thin the planting several times until properly spaced.

Finally, to avoid competition with your flower seedlings, remove weeds as soon as they appear.