Seeds and Starts
Each season I like to find new varieties of flowers to grow. It doesn’t sound the best when I say “I am sick of looking at my flowers” by the end of the season. I constantly want to find new varieties I haven’t grown yet. I have even expanded my reach to fillers which I have not been a fan of in the past but have discovered they have their own value. There are some flowers that I will dry and harvest for their seeds or, like poppies, I will let them self seed on their own. I am very picky about my varieties considering I always get a new vibe for the coming growing season.
Some years I have wanted bright colors in the hot pink, bright orange and yellow hues while other years I felt more moody with deep purples, magentas and white as a stark contrast. When I have downtime in the winter seed shopping is the top activity on every gardeners list. I have my regular sites that have consistently provided quality seeds. This year I am going to consider seedling starts for some of the flowers that have proved difficult to germinate in the past. Lisianthus and Canterbury Bells are some of my most popular flowers in the arrangements I design. Everyone comments on them and specifically asks for them to be added to their arrangement. Unfortunately, they are a pain to grow from seed!
I have included all the seed sights I have found to have the best outcomes when seed starting and the first place I have found that does seedling starts on a fairly large scale and ships to your home.
USDA Seed Savers: Worth purchasing for all of your vegetables. Exceptional selection and of the best quality. Heirloom seeds are tested for efficacy to their original origins to ensure they are not genetically modified.
Johnny’s Seeds: Expensive but a lot of options as far as flowers goes, especially cut flowers. Clear instructions for planting with thorough guides for more detailed information.
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: Great variety and focuses on more exotic species from all over the world. Always experimenting with new vegetables and flowers.
Eden Brothers: Good germination on these seeds.
Strictly Medicinal: Wide variety of medicinal plants. Lots of harder to get poisonous plants for the eccentric gardener.
Park Seed: Carries seed tape for harder to seed vegetables such as carrots or beets. Gives more uniform spacing to ensure best yeild size wise.
Swan Dahlia: Very large variety of Dahlia tubers. On the cheaper side because they price by single tuber where other providers charge a minimum of 2 tubers which doubles the cost.
Farmer Bailey: Seedling Starts shipped straight to your home. They also have flats of starts that begin as low as 25 and as high as 250.
