Imagine a spring garden bursting with blooms in every shade under the sun, vibrating with bee buzz, birdsong and butterflies on the wing. But you need to realise that to create such a beautiful garden, you must start right now.
Before rushing out to buy lots of seeds, take a serious look at the area in which you intend to place the final plants. Work out as the eventual heights, colour range and general growth habits that would best suit your imagined spring garden. Don’t forget to factor in plenty of room for fast-growing seasonal flowers which are sown closer to when they are to bloom.
In addition, make plans about what you want to grow in pots and other containers/hanging baskets for your spring show. Petunias for example, will benefit from being sown as they have lots of time to grow into strong, potentially high floriferous plants.
Now is the best time to choose a site and prepare your soil, for what you sow now, you’ll reap later
Many of the flowers that work so well in such a scheme are slow-growing annuals, biannuals which flower the year after being grown from seed, or short-lived perennials which will flower in their second year too.
All of these need sowing this month, or before the end of the next month at the very latest, if they are to thrive and bloom as intended. While temperatures may remain high until the end of October, you can have well-established seedlings to plant out in their final growing position by early to mid-winter.
Flower seeds falling into the above-mentioned categories include many old favourites and a few that may be new to you. These include old-fashioned hollyhocks, in double and single forms, and from small ones in front of the border to incredibly tall at the back of the border. Available in wide range of glorious colours — white, pinks, reds, purples, peach, pale yellows, chocolate browns and sunset shades — hollyhocks are one of the easiest plants to grow from seed and, you’ll be delighted to know, they germinate rapidly as well.