Flower seed planting schedule for Autumn transplanting

wait4me

I am a newcomer to ‘growing-it-myself’ and this year planted a lot of vegetables in the back garden – some success and some failures (where are my carrots and scallions gone to…..) so far – but I am still learning.

Now to tackle the growing of flowers, etc. Every year to now I purchased plants from the retailers but this year want to grow my own. I need to plant flowers in the border from Autumn for Winter/Spring flowering so I reckon I need to start planning on a seed planting schedule.

Any ideas on what, and more importantly, when to start seed planting for transplanting out later would be appreciated. I usually plant pansies or some plants like that but I hear that pansy seeds may be difficult. Any steer in the right direction would be appreciated.

redser7

There's not much you can sow for winter bedding. Pansies/violas would be good. You shoud start them now. I raised loads this year from seed collected last year. Found them easy to germinate and grow. Get yourself a cheap plastic propagator from B&Q. Or better still a butter container. Use proper see compost and place cling film over the tub until they germinate. Google for more info. Cyclamens can stand some cold for later winter but I think these are quite difficult and take time to get to flowering stage. Apart from that go for colourful foliage plants. Again, google winter planting, my knowledge is very limited. Hope it helps a bit.

wait4me

Thanks for the reply. The important bit is that I should start now... here goes!