Flower Tips

Some extra detail to help you understand our Information Bar:

Duration – the time a plant takes to grow:

• Annual – completes its entire life cycle (germinates, produces seed, dies) in one season (Calendula, Cosmos, Sunflower).
• Biennial – completes its entire life cycle in two years (Honesty, Russell Lupin).
• Perennial – can live for more than two years, surviving the winter and flowering each year usually from the second season (Aquilegia, Baptisia).

Garden Uses:

• Bedding – short and compact.
• Border – medium towards the front and taller at the back.
• Cutting – have a good vase life.
• Ground Covers – don’t have a lot of these (Snow in Summer, Trailing Nasturtiums, Wild Thyme - a herb).
• Hanging Baskets – Vining/Climbing types with tendrils (Sweet Pea, Morning Glory) or Trailing types (Lobelia, Petunia, Rhodochiton)
• Dried Flowers – more rigid/stiff, desiccate well (Teasel, Statice, Bells of Ireland)
• Bee Plants – Attractive to predator insects (Phacelia, Monarda)

Germination Tips:

• Sow fine seed on top of seed raising mix and press lightly into surface
• Larger seed, sow no deeper than twice the diameter of the seed
• Flower seed takes longer to germinate, needs good quality seed raising mix to last the germination time frame.
• Most flower seed needs warmth to germinate so either use heat if early in the season or wait until the weather warms up, particularly in southern or inland areas.