Growing flowers from seed

[MerylSqueak]

What are your favourites, or those you have most success with?

I'm making a concerted effort to do this this year but I also tried with direct sowing last year and had very little success. Out of two packets of seeds, one larkspur and one omphalodes flowered.so, this year I'm trying those compostela pots you can put straight in the ground and starting things off in the cold frame. What do you think?

I've got cosmos, nemesia, verbena, omphalades, larkspur, aster, silene and stocks on the go.

We always have success with Cosmos, lupins are hit and miss, nigella always do well but can take over the whole garden given the opportunity! California poppies took a few attempts but they grew in the end!

My best results from seed have been:
Sweetpeas
Nasturtium
Cosmos
Alyssum
Nigella
Zinnia
Runner beans
Courgette
Also: foxgloves and hollyhocks although these are biennials.

Agree with above - Bishop's Children dahlias work well from seeds too, and Gaura - both very pretty.

That should work, worked well for me last year and I’m very new to gardening.

I think stocks are a biannual though so won’t flower this season

I’m just doing sunflowers. I’ve done something like 30, so end up giving lots away

Really can’t wait for summer. I plant them in late May or early June.

At the very least I'd invest in a few seed trays with plastic lids - even if you're doing it outside (better inside on a windowsill) for a bit of protection to start them off.

If you leave seeds on their own in the soil at this time of year they may take while to get going and in that time fall prey to all the different garden critters - from mice to slugs to competition from other seeds. Also seed compost is finer and easier for seeds to throw roots into

If you want to play direct in soil wait a bit and then sow in a line - so then you'll be able to see the plants from the weeds around them!

I've got lots on the go - bue we have to set up a table on legs that the mice can't get up! Big seeds like courgettes and sunflowers are their favourite

Don’t take any notice of last year, about the worst for growing things that I can remember in forty years of growing from seed!

some of the things you mention are half hardy and need starting off inside and then hardening off. There is a brilliant book called ‘ Growing Garden Flowers from seed’ by Christopher Lloyd , you can probably pick it up secondhand. It’s very well written so is entertaining as well as instructive.

Thank you for the advice and suggestions. I'm off to the garden centre now so I will use them to choose more.

Thank you for the book recommendation and the encouragement @Allthegoodnamesarechosen

Several years ago I grew what I thought was Matthiola incana, but it’s a world away from Brompton stocks, so I think it may be Matthiola sylvestris. A metre tall, with outflung arms bearing clusters of highly scented flowers. I still have some of the original plants.

Anchusa azurea - an incredible dark blue. Biennial.

Shirley poppy are lovely scattered over soil - they don’t like being transplanted.

That sounds like a mixed blessing! Thank you for those very pretty suggestions.

One thing I find difficult is that it's often quite difficult to get pictures of the whole plant. Usually it's just the flowers. I find it really annoying.