How To Sow Hardy Annuals

September is a great time to start sowing your hardy annuals, for your Spring garden. This is a little jump start guide to help you get a head start on flowers for next year. This is just a selection of things that we will be growing in the Bloom garden.

What is a Hardy Annual?

A hardy annual is a plant that has a life cycle of a year. It germinates, grows, blooms and dies in one trip around the sun. The ‘hardy’ part means that the seedling is tough and strong and will be able to survive the frosts. This means that we can get some of our flower seeds growing over the autumn and winter, so they can shoot up in the Spring and grow into nice strong plants that should give us some early flowers.

How do we sow and grow them?

There’s a few ways to grow hardy annuals, but I will just share how I like to sow mine. This is not the only, or right, way to do it, but just the method that I prefer best. You could also just plants your seeds straight into the ground outside.

You will need some seeds trays (or cells), compost, seeds, and a tray of water, or watering can.

  • First, fill up your seed trays with compost.

  • Make a little hole in the compost and pop your seed in, and cover it over gently with some compost.

  • Then either water with your watering can, or float it in a tray of water so they can get a good drink from below.

  • Keep your trays in a sheltered place until they pop up. A greenhouse, cold frame, or little zippy is ideal!

  • When your seedlings are getting big, you will need to pot them on. This means transferring them into bigger pots so they have more space to grow. Keep your seedlings watered, but make sure they are not soaking! Keep them happy over winter, and then you can plant them outside in the new year.

What seeds can I sow?

Here is just a little list of what we will be starting off in September:

  • If you are a beginner (or not!) I would recommend cornflowers. They produce loads of flowers, are nice big plants and are the most wonderful shade of blue.

  • Sweet peas can also be started off in September, if you start them early and grow them over winter, they will grow into much bigger plants and will give you longer stems. Excellent for flower arranging!

  • Orlaya Grandiflora is a gem and has wonderful white flowers that come out nice and early.

  • We are going to give growing calendula in the autumn a go. We have not done this before, so I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.

  • Another new one for us is going to be stocks. I love the scent of stocks and can’t wait to give them ago!

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