Quick Start Summer Flower Kit - Instructions
The Summer Flower Kit contains the following:
- Achillea - Summer Pastels
- Achillea - Cerise
- Cosmos - Daydream
- Borage
- Dianthus Dignity (carnations) - Lavender
- Dianthus Dignity (carnations) - White
- Dill
- Hesperis (sweet rocket)
- Matthiloa Incana (stocks)
- Papaver (poppies) - Champagne Bubbles Pink
- Zinnia - Benary's Bright Giant Pink
- Zinnia - Benary's Salmon Rose/ Red Lime/ Lilac/ Mixed (one of these - lucky dip!)
Here's what to do with them:
Papavers (poppies) need to be set aside for now - keep the seeds in a cool dark place until August when you can pat yourself on the back for being really organised then sow them where you want them to grow, protect them with a cloche over winter and when they start to grow, thin them to 30cm apart.
Sweet Rocket is a biennial so again, sow these directly into the ground in June, and these will produce mainly foliage this year, and flower from early Spring next year.
Now, onto the rest which will flower this summer:)
For everything else, direct sow them into the ground.
To direct sow: Simply rake the soil to a fine tilthe, then create drills (a line about 2-3 times the depth of your seed) about 30cm apart. Water soil first, then sow seeds. If you're confident grower - sow 2-3 seeds per plant you want to grow. If you're less confident then sow a few more as you're bound to lose some to slugs/over or under watering/other pests/general incompetence!
Seeds will take between 7-28 days to germinate so leave them alone except for daily gentle watering if there's no rain, then when seedlings start to appear, thin first to 5cm apart then come back when they're a little bigger and thin to their final plant spacing.
If you prefer to watch, here's a video of me direct sowing seeds earlier this year - just watch as much as you need to:
Here is a little additional information about each of the seeds.
Achillea likes light to germinate so sow onto the surface of the soil, I prefer to cover with vermiculite so the seeds don't get washed away with water. Once sowed, thin to 22cm between each plant. You'll find some more information about growing Achillea here:
https://thefloralproject.co.uk/blogs/news/how-to-grow-achillea
Cosmos - Sow directly into the ground then thin to 30-40cm apart. See more information about growing Cosmos here:
https://thefloralproject.co.uk/blogs/news/cosmos
Borage - Sow directly into the ground then thin to 45cm apart. This is a herb that not only will give you beautiful blue flowers and foliage for your bouquets, but you can put it on salads too :)
Dianthus - The dignity series features double, lacy flowers on tall sturdy plant. Direct sow and then thin to 30cm.
Dill - Direct sow then thin to 15cm. This is a great foliage/filler crop for your bouquets. Stake as it grows to prevent it falling over.
Matthiloa Incana (stocks) - Sow direct then thin to 15-22cm. Will need staking to prevent them falling over.
Zinnias - Direct sow into the ground then thin to 22-30cm apart. Pinch when 30cm tall. These like light to germinate so cover with vermiculite or just press into the surface of the soil. See more information about Zinnias here: