sowing seeds in february Archives

Hooray! It’s the last week of February. According to the met Office here in the UK it’s officially late winter. If you are a gardener, now is the time to start sowing flower seeds for your garden or allotment.

I live in Lancashire, North West England close to the middle of the UK. There’s currently 10 hours and 17 minutes of daylight here (22nd February) So it’s the perfect time to start sowing flower seeds.

We’ve had some really cold, dark and gloomy days this winter. Sometimes I’ve needed the lights on all day in the house as well as the log fire blazing away. Until now it’s been way to dark and cold to start my seeds off. Each seed contains just enough energy to push it’s way out of the compost and start to grow. After that it needs sunlight to convert to energy so it can keep growing. There just isn’t enough natural light for them in early to mid winter (December and January)

There is no rush though. It’s far better to wait until conditions are right in your area, and then sow your seeds so they get off to a great start. You may have seen flower growers online talking about the seeds they’ve already sown and young plants they have ready to plant outside. Please do not worry. You are not behind! Flower farmers and commercial growers need their blooms earlier than most gardeners. They often sow early and use special equipment to grow their seedlings over winter. Some use techniques to get their flowers blooming slightly earlier too.

You can check out day length in your local area at https://www.timeanddate.com/sun Just type your nearest city in the search bar there and you’ll see a table for this month showing sunrise and sunset times. I love that you can look ahead too, and remind yourself that longer days are coming. No matter how gloomy it’s been, things are getting brighter and spring is on the way.

What should you grow? I’d suggest starting with Hardy Annuals this month. They are inexpensive plus extremely easy and quick to grow so you’ll get fast results. Many Hardy Annuals go from seed to flowering in just 8 to 10 weeks. They flower all summer then produce seeds and die at the end of the season. You can collect the seeds if you like, and sow them again next year. All the photos in this blog post today are Hardy Annuals. You can choose bright colours, pastels or even go for just white.

When to sow Hardy Annuals. Hardy Annuals are sown indoors in late winter and early spring (February and March) and in autumn too. Cold conditions will kill tender new seedlings, even if they are classed as hardy so please don’t put them outside without protection. Well established plants can withstand cold days though. I’ve seen Hardy Annuals droop on frosty mornings and recover as the warmth of the sun kicks in. My area has mild winters usually (warmed by the Gulf Stream) but I always have some horticultural fleece on hand just in case a long cold spell arrives. If you’d prefer to sow them directly where you want them to flower, then it’s better to wait until April or May when all danger of frost is over in your area.

What do you want your flowers to do? There are soooo many seeds to choose from it’s probably best to whittle your list down. Decide exactly what you want your flowers for. Here’s some ideas.

Fill gaps in your beds and borders
Create a cottage garden feel
Edge the path to your door
Attract wildlife with food (nectar, pollen and seeds)
Provide buckets of cut flowers for your home and for gifts
Add specific colours to your existing planting scheme
Fill your patio containers all summer
Create a meadow / wildflower area

Once you’ve decided what ‘s most important to you, other decisions like the height or the shape of the plants you need will become clearer. For example: Flowers for cutting are usually scented and tall with many straight stems. Plants for patio containers are often shorter and have a bushier habit which is so useful for tumbling over pot edges.

Think of it like creating a shopping list for a new recipe you want to try. If you go shopping and buy whatever catches your eye, then chuck it all in a pan when you get home, the results are unlikely to be great. Spending a few minutes deciding exactly what you need for that particular dish is time well spent. You’ll end up with a delicious meal.

It’s exactly the same in your garden. Just buy the seeds and plants that will do the job you want them to do. If you’re like me and want all the flowers then it’s probably best to choose one area to work on first. Which part of your garden is crying out for attention? What would really give you a welcome boost when you arrive home? What would provide the most joy?

I’ve got a couple of new beds to fill with flowers this year so I’m growing flowers for those and the space right outside our back door needs some sprucing up too. I’m choosing flowers for those areas to start with then, I’ll think about my patio pots next month. I want some colourful flowers the suit our country garden and I’d like some climbers too, ideally scented like Sweet Peas.

A word of caution. I’ve seen several people and companies suggesting the top flowers to sow in February. They ARE trying to be helpful, but many of their recommendations are Half Hardy Annuals. That means they don’t survive in cold conditions. The safe time to sow them direct is after the last frost in your area which is usually the end of May in the middle of the UK. You can start them off inside in April ready to plant out in May. It’s slightly later than that if you’re further north or if your garden is on higher ground. When it’s warm enough to place your bare bum on the soil without wincing then it’s warm enough! Never tried that myself but please let me know if you do that!

Half Hardy Annuals like Sunflowers, Nicotiana, Zinnias, Cosmos and Dahlias are originally from much warmer climates… places like Mexico, where year-round temperatures are much warmer than the UK.

You can sow Half Hardy Annuals indoors if you can keep your plants warm enough for the next 3 months. They need around 18°C to germinate then will grow on at 15°C or so. If you can provide warmth and crucially light conditions, with a heated greenhouse or similar, then go ahead. Otherwise, I’d to stick to Hardy Annuals for now. There are so many to choose from that it’s not a hardship and that’s another way of whittling down what to grow right now too.

There’s loads of colourful Hardy Annuals that are quick and easy to grow. You can check out all of these I’ve included here and lots more in the Hardy Annuals Section. Wishing you a very Happy and Flowery February! Love Gillian

There’s nothing quite like the sight of the true intense blue of Cornflowers scattered like jewels through a flowery meadow. I’ve been lucky enough to see them growing with golden yellow Corn Marigolds and the happy white daisies of Corn Chamomile. Sometimes there are flashes of scarlet from the papery petals of our native field Poppy too. A wildflower meadow is a truly amazing sight!

Wild Cornflowers *Centaurea cyanus* and Wild Poppies *Papaver rhoeas*

Cornflowers are popular with both people and wildlife. I love them for their early summer colour. There’s nothing quite like the clear, intense blue of Cornflowers. They bring back memories of happy times such as family picnics in the countryside, a garden visit or best of all happy days in granny’s garden. Insects love them for their flowers too. Cornflowers supply pollen and nectar for bees and lots of other beneficial insects. Once the flowers are over their seeds provide food for small mammals and birds such as Goldfinches.

Wild Cornflowers growing with Corn Marigolds *Chrysanthemum segetum* and Corn Chamomile *Anthemis arvensis*

Cornflowers are endangered! Did you know?

Before farming intensified in the UK in the 1960’s Cornflowers grew wild with crops such as wheat, barley, oats and rye. Today many farmers consider wildflowers to be weeds because they contaminate their crops. Herbicides are still widely used to eradicate them.

In the UK now, wild cornflowers are classified as endangered. Wildflower meadows they love to grow in, have declined from 264 sites in 1960, to 50 sites in 1985 and in 1998 there were just 3 sites left, one in Suffolk, one on the Isle of Wight and one in Lincolnshire.

The good news is that Cornflowers are quick to grow, and their numbers can recover. Over the past 20 years various national bodies including the Wildlife Trust have been working to reintroduce Cornflowers across the UK. One of the best displays can be seen at College Lake in Buckinghamshire and there are lots of other sites too. I’ve seen them growing in wildflower meadows at National Trust gardens and a nearby caravan site had a large strip of mixed wildflowers including Cornflowers in the grass verge at their site entrance last summer.

You have probably seen plenty of articles and TV programmes encouraging you to grow wildflowers to provide food and habitat for wildlife. The thinking is, if all gardeners did this it would help turn the tide in the decline of bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects. That’s a great idea and such an easy thing to do to help pollinating insects. Do we need to stick to wildflowers though?

In fact both the wild Cornflowers and the ‘improved’ cultivated/man-made varieties are good for wildlife.
Both produce pollen, nectar and seeds which feed insects, small mammals and birds. So which to choose?
The choice is entirely yours.

Here’s some details about both types of Cornflowers to help you decide which is best for you.

Which Cornflowers are best?

Centaurea cyanus is our native wild Cornflower. Seeds are available from many online seed suppliers including Country Garden UK of course! They grow to around 60cm tall and have many well branched stems with a beautiful blue flower at the top of each. Each grey/green cotton stems looks delicate but is quite sturdy. Each flower has one ring of blue ray flowers. These are lovely in wildflower meadows or even just a small wild patch in a garden growing with other delicate looking plants. If you have a wilder, more naturalistic garden or space for a mini meadow you may prefer to go down the wildflower route.

Centaurea cyanus, our native wild Cornflower.

The cultivated Cornflower is also widely available and there are several names for this blue cornflower, Centaurea ‘Double Blue’, ‘Blue Boy’ or ‘Blue Ball’. They have been enhanced by selective breeding to produce more garden worthy plants. They have the usual grey/green cotton stems but they are much taller (90cm+) so will need staking or the support of pea and been netting stretched horizontally. Flower heads are larger too. Each flower has TWO rings of ray flowers so a small group of these has much more colour and impact in the garden.

Wild Cornflower on the left, cultivated Cornflowers on the right.

They are also available in other colours such as pink, red, purple, black and white or a lovely mixture. These larger cultivated forms are all excellent for providing a relaxed country feel in cottage gardens. They’re great for cut flowers, for edible petals and for drying to make wedding confetti too.

How to Grow Cornflowers

If you are thinking about growing Cornflowers, either our native wild form or a cultivated variety then late winter – spring is a great time to sow seeds. Sow cornflower seeds either indoors in late February/March. You can sow them in modules, one or two seeds per cell or scatter a few seeds in a wooden seed tray if you prefer not to use plastic. Sow outdoors when it’s warm enough. In the UK that’s usually from April onwards, they need temperatures of 10-16°C to germinate. Cornflowers usually take just 10 or 11 weeks to flower from a spring sowing. (You’ll find full growing details in the shop… just search for Cornflower or Centaurea)

Cornflower seedlings growing in modules.

You can also sow Cornflowers in late summer to early autumn. The soil is still warm from summer and there’s usually plenty of rain too so they will germinate quickly and romp away. It’s easy to scatter the seeds where you want them to flower and just let them grow. They are Hardy Annuals. They’ll produce nice sturdy plants this autumn and flower next year from May onwards.

Just in case you’re wondering what I do… here’s the answer. I grow some wild cornflowers in the wilder areas of my garden and cultivated varieties in my cutting patch. I usually sow Cornflower seeds in autumn and spring. That gives me a longer flowering period with a succession of blooms. Autumn sown plants flower first starting in May and they are followed by the spring sown plants in July and August. It’s lovely to have plenty of flowers for cutting and lots of food in the form of nectar and seeds for our wild creatures too.

I’d love to know what you think. Do you prefer wild or cultivated flowers? Which are your favourite Cornflowers? Are you growing them in your garden, cutting garden or allotment this year?