do i need a greenhouse to plant flowers from seed and are the cheap ones any good?

[mamacoffee]

hi

would like to do my flower bed from seed this year, will a greenhouse help? or do i need a cold frame? or both?

are the cheap ones like these any good?

It depends what you want to grow and how many plants you need; greenhouses are always useful but one may not be essential in your case. You can get a lot of seeds that you can sow outside where you want them to grow. I don't have a greenhouse- I find that there are plenty of windowsills in my house for all the seeds I need to grow indoors, but then my garden isn't massive so I don't need hundreds of plants.

Do you have any plants in mind? How big is the bed you need to fill?

Those grow houses in your link are called blow aways for the obvious reason. They are ok if you have some way of fixing them down or to a wall in a sheltered position that still gets sun.

I think something like this

www.greenfingers.com/superstore/product.asp?dept_id=200672&pf_id=OS0001D
is a better cheap option and you could fix it down quite easily with a couple of brackets to the bottom.

Thanks for your replies!

Eaurouge the bed is about 3m x 0.5m. The stuff I want to try from seed is annuals or perennials I'm a complete newbie so I don't have any names I cd quote, but this year we bought trays of bedding plantsand we did begonias, petunias, lobelia and verbena something.

Cantspel thanks for the advice, will stay away from that one then! Is the one you linked to like a cold frame but taller?

They are called a grow house and similar to a cold frame but upright like a polycarbonate cupboard. the tops open for ventilation and they have a couple of shelves for seed trays and pots.

ideal if you just want to do a few bedding plants or cuttings and maybe over winter some geraniums.

I have one of those "blow always", and it works fine for me: it is slightly taller than that one. I do now weight its bottom shelf down with stones and tie it firmly in place but I like the way I can pack it away in its box when I've finished with it.

Plastic greenhouses are on a par with chocolate fire guards.
They block out too much light to be much use.

Try ebay for second hand ones, I got mine for £60, we had to go and take it down but the owner helped us.

If you cut the end of a plastic drinks bottle you then have a mini cloche. For every seed that you sow, water, scatter a few slug pellets and cover with a mini cloche. Choose easy to grow seeds like cosmos to start with and wait until the weather and ground is warm enough... probably April.
I have no greenhouse or cold frame but have grown loads of veg and flowers from seed sown direct into the soil like this. Good luck.

That's really clever sicilian Thanks for the tip!