The Common Mistake To Avoid When Growing Flowers From Seeds

Whether you are looking to turn your yard into a butterfly haven or simply attempting to add depth and texture to your lawn, planting flowers can help you accomplish your goals. However, timing is the key to creating the color-laden garden you are wanting to see. Regardless of whether you are starting your seeds indoors or direct sowing them in your garden, planting them all at the same time is a common mistake to avoid when growing flowers from seeds.

Because different types of flowers have various germination rates, planting them all at the same time can have disastrous results at worst and lead to a choppy sequence of transplanting and blooming at best. Luckily, it's simple enough to avoid this common gardening mistake beginners make. All it really takes is a little bit of research and planning, which will include determining the varieties of flowers you wish to plant, as well as being aware of your USDA hardiness zone and the last frost date for your area.

The first step in knowing when to plant your flower seeds is deciding which types of flowers you want to grow and verifying they are able to be cultivated in your USDA hardiness zone. Once the varieties have been determined, the easiest way to determine the germination period of each is to look on the back of the seed envelope. However, if you harvested your own seeds or were gifted a pack of home-harvested seeds, you will need to do a bit of research to determine this information. For that, you can look up each variety individually, or you can utilize one of several online seed starting calculators.

Whether you are gleaning your information from the seed packet or from an online tool, you will need to the last frost date for your location in order to determine the proper planting time. Working with these pieces of information, you can determine the date you need to plant each variety. If starting seeds indoors, staggering planting dates based on the last frost date and the germination rate for each variety will ensure you can transplant them all at the same time. You should also consider the blooming period for each type of flower you are planting, whether sowing directly outdoors or transplanting from indoors. Using the blooming period as a guide, you can group the flowers throughout your garden so that their blooms coincide or so that they are staggering, which allows color to remain in your garden for a longer period of time.