Many people I've met think April and May is the time to start tearing open seed packets and sowing seeds directly into the ground.
Seasoned gardeners will often start a little earlier with seeds sown under cover in February and March.
But those in the know realise that if you want to strongest, healthiest, tallest and earliest blooms, then Autumn sowing is the way to go.
In fact there are some flowers, such as Orlaya and Cerinthe that only thrive when they are sown in the Autumn.
If I share pictures such as the one below (see the white flowers), I can guarantee I'll have comments 'I love those Orlaya - mine never really took off' - and when I ask when their seeds were sown - the answer is always Spring.
That's why!
Hardy Annuals form the backbone of our cut flower patches and at The Floral Project we sow them every month from August until March (we'll sow August's Flower Kit right at the end of August).
The key thing to know about these plants is that they can handle the cold - in fact they thrive in it - for example Cornflowers are an H6 according to the RHS Hardiness Scale which means they can tolerate temperatures down to -20 degrees Centigrade - and Orlaya is an H7 which means it can tolerate temperatures even colder than that. So we should be fine in the UK!
Great news if you don't own a greenhouse - because with the first sets of seeds that we sow, we'll be aiming to get these plants into the ground at least a couple of weeks before the first frosts (check here for yours).
They'll over-winter in the garden where they will grow bushy foliage but mainly big strong roots which are the foundation for their strong stems, height and floweriness the following year. They'll look tatty and you'll think you've lost them all when the snow buries them - but come Spring they'll suddenly become much more vigorous and start putting on growth above the ground - and will flower around a month earlier at least than Spring sown annuals.
As we continue to sow every month, there will be some that aren't big enough to be planted out (or haven't even been sown yet!) by the time the first frosts come.
No problem - we'll just nurture them under cover. If you have a greenhouse - great. If you don't, that's still not a problem - have a look here at alternatives.
We'll then plant them out into the garden at the end of March (I'll let you know when) and they will still flower way sooner than your Spring-sown plants).
Of course, if you prefer you can simply save all your hardy annuals seeds and sow them all in one go in March - but will mean you'll have hundreds of baby seedlings all needing pricking out and potting on at the same time and it can be easy to become overwhelmed and give up. That's why we'll be sowing our five varieties of seeds every month to prevent that happening!
Every year there are 'those people who have all those early flowers' and those who are wondering how 'those people did that'.
This year you'll be one of the former :)
