Planning Checklist
Reviewed what plants you already have growing ✔
Written a wish list of plants ✔
Edited wish list using the ‘flower seasons guide’ ✔
Added which type of plant is which ✔
Noted the flowering length of each ✔
Now in week 5 of the planning your cut flowers, time to consider where you are starting off your flowers and how that informs your schedule.
Catch up on the previous weeks here -
On week 5, how you start off your seeds informs your sowing schedule.
This week in the live, we talked about where you are growing seeds - not just that starting off bit, but what you do with the seedlings once germinated and growing on until they are ready to be planted in their final position.
Scroll down for the recording of last nights live session with my presentation and our chat afterwards.
What do hardy plants require and in contrast, what do half hardy plants need in those weeks until the last frost has passed. Do you have that space to take a tiny seedling, pot on and tend to in a frost free place? If so, when can you start your seeds? If not, when is best to start seeds directly outside and what do you need to think about?
Hardy Plants
These are more straight forward and as you can check on the Planting Calendar spreadsheet, there are many options for germinating these seeds. Consider when you noted your hardy plants on your combinations list, were expected to flower - flowering period 2, 3 or 4. Then follow the corresponding line in the planting calendar to check when to start them off and then are you growing indoors or out. Same question - have you got the space and resources to grow these until they are ready to be planted out?
Half Hardy Plants
These have require a little more consideration. Check the Planting Calendar and consider your resources. Not just the indoor space, but also your time that these plants will require - heat, light, warmth and watering.
The effort required to grow half hardy through to maturity from a very early start is significant. Look at your flowering periods and combinations sheet. Do you need to start those off so early for your flowers to produce in the first flowering period? Can you start off later? Could you sow them direct into the soil?
Do you need to cut your list down as there are too many plants for your space (we will be plotting out the plants in our spaces on paper next week) in which case, thinking about those combinations from the anatomy of a flower arrangement, with the flowering period and how long it flowers for will help consider which is worth the effort. If you’ve got a plant that flowers for ages, and can be sown direct compared to one that is a one hit wonder and needs growing under cover and you have run out of space, which one will you knock off the list?
There are plenty in the floral notes index on growing cut flowers - this is not a practical course on growing, instead, how to consider planning yours individualised for your aims, space, resources and needs.
However, if you are growing at home without space undercover, here is a great guide as how to start seedlings off without a greenhouse.
Whichever way you start off those seeds really feeds into that sowing schedule. Let’s make this year much easier for you to grow to success.
What do you need to consider when starting off the seeds, your options and problems you can avoid:
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