Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: joiner on January 12, 2012, 21:50

Title: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: joiner on January 12, 2012, 21:50
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.
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: sunshineband on January 12, 2012, 22:22
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
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: DD. on January 13, 2012, 06:57
Easy bedding plants?

Tagetes and more tagetes!
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: arugula on January 13, 2012, 08:32
Lobelia, allysum..... :)
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: DD. on January 13, 2012, 08:38
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.
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: mumofstig on January 13, 2012, 09:14
All of the above, but I've never managed Bizzy Lizzies  :(
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: DD. on January 13, 2012, 09:15
Me neither.
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: arugula on January 13, 2012, 10:32
Was going to add snap dragons as well. Also things like wallflowers, poppies or cosmos, but they're getting taller. :D
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: sarajane on January 13, 2012, 16:21
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 . 
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: Yorkie on January 13, 2012, 18:40
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!
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: muckyboots on January 13, 2012, 19:54
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.
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: Lulu on January 13, 2012, 21:15
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. 
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: Christine on January 18, 2012, 19:39
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.  :lol:
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: rowlandwells on January 18, 2012, 20:12
 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

Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: tallulah on February 04, 2012, 14:04
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!
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: sarajane on February 07, 2012, 08:01
I don't have much luck sowing direct - maybe all the cats and dogs in our household! -

I've got a few old wire hanging baskets and these get upturned over direct sowings so they don't get trampled on.


Edited to tidy up quote.
Title: Re: bedding plants from seeds.
Post by: cuddlykoala on February 10, 2012, 11:29
I am currently growing Petunias from seed (see link below) and last year I grew Pansies, Polyanthus, Cosmos and Californian Poppies from seed.  This year I plan to grow lots, I have just about every flower seed.