Turn Seeds Into Stunning Blooms – My Step-by-Step Guide!

The important thing when you're sowing these is that you don't sneeze. Spring is the best time to sow many things, particularly summer bedding plants, those that give us blooms right the way through June, July and on until the frost. And if you look at a seed packet, on the front is the dream, the promise of what you can get This is Cosmos, Candy Stripe, a reliable, striking border plant. Sow February to May, flowers June to October. But on the back is a miniature encyclopaedia of information. Don't throw it away after you've sown the seeds. Here's a calendar telling you what to do and when, this is how tall it is, everything you need to know about what to do, when it'll flower and it tells you also enough for 60 plants. That means there'll be more than 60 seeds in here because they do allow you a little bit of wastage. They'll even tell you how long the seed is viable. If you keep it cool and dry, it will last till December 2028. That's not bad, is it? This is the glamorous packet. Inside it is this less glamorous one, but very importantly, hermetically sealed. It's airtight, watertight. The seeds in here will be dry, viable, that means they'll be ready to grow, much more so than if they'd been subjected to all kinds of temperature and humidity changes in an ordinary paper packet. So they're absolutely fresh, you're ready to start. I like containers to look good. I like to avoid using plastic wherever I can. As long as you keep using plastic and keep them within the garden, rather than throwing them away, you're being more environmentally friendly. But I just love to use these hand-thrown terracotta clay flowerpot. These stopped being made by hand in about the 1930s, and after that, they were moulded. They're still beautiful, still terracotta. You can tell they're not cracked if they ring. If they're cracked, they'll go clunk. Both got good drainage holes in the base, and that's important because you don't want them to become waterlogged. You can use ordinary multi-purpose peat-free compost, but there are now peat-free composts available for seed sowing. It's lovely springy stuff. Why seed compost? Well, it's not as strong as potting compost, which tends to have more fertiliser in it, more nutrients in it. All seeds need to grow, really. It's very little in the way of food. It's what you can feel. There'll be a little bit of fertiliser in there, but nothing like a strong, which might scorch them if you were sowing them into a stronger potting compost. So seed compost suits them nicely. Just tip it in until it's slightly overfilled, like that, and then all you need to do is go... You don't need to get your fingers in there and firm it at all. Just by tapping it down, you'll make sure there's about a centimetre of gap between the surface of the compost and the rim of the pot, and that is firm enough. Now, time for the seeds. Take your hermetically sealed packet and flick it to make sure there are no seeds stuck up there. You've paid for them. You might as well have all of them when they're right down in the bottom. Tear the top off and then open that packet. You can see the sort of silvery inside to it now, showing that it's airtight, and tip the seeds into the clean palm of your hand. Seeds are all shapes and sizes. These are cosmos, this lovely daisy-like flower. Make sure you've got every last one out. There's a couple here lurking in the bottom. There we are. Now, these are quite long. A lot of people like to take a pinch and then sprinkle it over the surface of the pot. You can do that, provided you're not too vigorous with your pinch, or just tap the edge of your hand and you'll find that they work their way towards the edge and you can then distribute them evenly over the surface of the compost. I want these seeds to rest about half a centimetre apart, about a quarter of an inch apart, and that will give them room to grow a little bit before I then prick them out, transplant them to a wider spacing in a tray. That's probably enough. Now, seeds this size do need a light covering of compost. Most seeds prefer to germinate in the dark. Some like to germinate in the light. The back of the seed packet will tell you that. But for those that need to be covered, old kitchen sieve. Found it in a jumble sale. And I'm going to sieve compost over these seeds. Now, you're not burying them terribly deeply. Just enough covering so that you can't see them. There you are. The last one has disappeared from view. And that is your sown pot. Now, you might think you'll remember what you've sown. You won't. You need to label it. You can use white labels with a soft pencil. I prefer to use black labels and a silver marker. And this is Cosmos Candy Stripe. And then on the back, 4th of April, just to show when it went in. Stick the label in the pot. And then you're going to need to water it. Now, you can get a watering can with a fine sprinkler head, a fine rose, but it will disturb the compost. And there's a danger that it might wash the seeds about. So prepare yourself. What I prefer to do is to stand the pot in water, almost up to its rim. When the water reaches the top, the surface of the compost will become moist. You know then the water's gone all the way up. You can then take it out and stand it on your windowsill or in a propagator if you've got one, with a little dome on the top, just to give it a little bit of heat to get those plants through. The important thing is that you don't let that compost dry out. Now, that is the biggest secret of all in sowing seeds. They can last in that packet until 2028 if they're kept cool and they're kept dry. The moment you put a seed in contact with water, the enzymatic process starts and then it becomes vulnerable. And it's up to you to make sure that it can keep on growing unchecked. It doesn't mean to say you have to grow it in a paddy field while it's really soggy. Just keep that compost damp. Now, the reason I'm sieving some seed compost onto the surface of this pot, which I haven't yet sown, is because I'm about to sow begonia seeds. Now, begonia seeds are incredibly fine. So too is lobelia. They don't need any compost covering at all. When you see the size of the seeds, you'll realise why they don't need any covering. Now, look at that. That is dust. The important thing when you're sowing these is that you don't sneeze. Because if you do, they've gone. So with these, it really is a case of tapping the side of your hand and they'll gradually disappear from the centre of your hand. And I'm moving the hand right the way across and around the compost so that they're in there, all the last ones. You won't see them, but they're nestling among the crumbs of the compost. Keep it warm, cover with a sheet of newspaper to keep really bright sunlight off it until they come up and then as bright a light as possible. That's the finest seed you'll probably sow, along with lobelia. What about the largest? That, I suspect, will be the sweet pea. Here they are, like little peas, quite hard-coated. Sweet peas like a long root run, so these tall, narrow little pots are really ideal for them. Now, three of these seeds. You could do five if you're being really greedy. Space three of them out on the surface of the compost equidistantly. Three of them will go in there and then poke them in with a pencil about a centimetre deep and just flick the compost back over them. Now, these you can water with a watering can fitted with a sprinkler because you're not going to disturb those seeds. They're really quite hefty and they'll take between 10 days and two weeks to germinate. If you've no facilities at all and you don't want to sow in pots, look for things like scabius and silenia, the catchfly, which are hardy annuals. When the soil outdoors has warmed up in April, May, you can sow these direct in the garden, in little tiny furrows, little drills, and they'll come up where you sow them, provided, as with the ones that you're sowing in pots, you don't let them dry out. A little bit of good gardening and you need no protection at all for the hardy annuals to have a summer full of flowers. I'll be posting new videos each week, so subscribe to the channel below and let's get gardening together.