[joiner]

hi,

Looking to try and grow bedding plants from seed for the first time and was woundering if anyone knew which are best and easiest to grow to get the best results.

[sunshineband]

Hardy annuals are by far the easiest, as you can usually direct sow them around end of March and they pretty much get on with it.

Check out the seed displays in garden centres to see what catches your eye and read the seed packets carefully to make sure they are hardy sorts you buy

[DD.]

Easy bedding plants?

Tagetes and more tagetes!

[arugula]

Lobelia, allysum.....

[DD.]

I'm not a great flower gardener, (or veggie one come to that!), but we'll be doing tagetes, pelargoniums, lobelia, (including trailing), calendula, messbryaneth, Livingstone Daisies, and Antirinumummms Snap Dragons. For some of these it will mean cranking the greenhouse heater up.

[mumofstig]

All of the above, but I've never managed Bizzy Lizzies 

[DD.]

Me neither.

[arugula]

Was going to add snap dragons as well. Also things like wallflowers, poppies or cosmos, but they're getting taller.

[sarajane]

All of the above, but I've never managed Bizzy Lizzies 

Me neither and they are not selling any this year due to a virus . 

[Yorkie]

I managed them the first year I grew them.

Next year I actually read the packet and discovered that they were supposed to be tricky.  Never managed to grow them since!

[muckyboots]

Hi,regarding  Bizzy Lizzies our local nursery has told us that due to a virus that has yet no cure they will be on the decline,so I would recommend alternatives.Good luck there are plenty out there as suggested previously.

[Lulu]

I simply can't grow seeds direct in the garden - don't seem to have the knack for it so I grow them in seed trays first etc and then place them where I want them.  Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't - but this way I always end up with too many plants so the gaps get filled in. 

[Christine]

I'm sorry but a decline in the busy lizzie can only be good in my eyes - there are a few flowers I don't like and these are they - would rather have dandelions. 

[rowlandwells]

 we grow petunia marigolds dahlia cuphea aster lobelia helichrysum because there not to bad to raise with a little heat and a little TLC and luck

any tender plants that are difficult to grow we buy in  plugs and pot on i suppose that's a bit cheating to say i raised these plants but although you do loose the odd plant your quids in because heating is very expensive and we heat to a minimum

[tallulah]

I don't have much luck sowing direct - maybe all the cats and dogs in our household! - so I sow into modules or pots in my cold greenhouse, usually late March onwards.  I sow: cosmos, nigella, snapdragons, lobelia, calendula, violas (from seeds from some gorgeous ones I saw in Cannes one year!), that spidery flower, can't remember its name, larkspur, sweetpeas, nasturtium, sunflowers - the list goes on and on!  They key for me is: don't sow too many; don't delay potting on - usually just once is enough, then out they go.  Greatest success rate for me is sowing or potting on to individual modules, which really establishes a good root system which can get planted out with the minimum of disturbance.  And its such a joy, checking up every morning, to see how its all going, and what's changed!