Seedling Success

This year, for the first time, most of our flowers have been grown from seed. (Colin has always grown salad crops and vegetables this way). We collected seed from as many of our plants as possible last year and we also bought several assorted 25p packets from Lidl in the UK. 

We started off all the seeds in our mini greenhouse and planted them out once the risk of frost had passed. Overall, the results have been very encouraging. From one 25p packet of China Aster, for example, we now have 82 healthy plants, each with multiple stems of jewel-coloured blooms, 2-3' tall.

They look wonderful in the herbaceous borders and also make good cut flowers..

Last year's half-a-dozen bought Gazanias gave us enough seed to fill the front border and more besides..

                             

We had the same success with the Antirrhinums, Phlox, Dianthus and Verbena, to name a few. Encouraged by these results we are now trying to grow delphiniums from the seed we've collected from our one and only plant...

 

The following link gave advice on how to grow delphiniums from seed.

So far the results look promising... and we are already planning where all these spires of blue are going to go.

I, for one, am now a convert to seed propagation and we will (hopefully!) be able to post some photos of the fully grown plants in flower next year..... I did say "hopefully"!