Sow These 6 Flowers Now for Blooms Weeks Ahead of Everyone Else.

It's almost time to sow seeds for our early summer flowers next year. I'm going to show you exactly how to grow them in this video so you can be harvesting beautiful flowers like this early next summer and avoid common mistakes along the way. The flowers I'm sowing in today's video are hardy annuals and they need to be planted in the ground around six weeks before your first frost of the season to give them time to grow strong roots before they go dormant over winter. My first frost is in early November meaning I need to sow these now to have plants in the ground by mid to late September. Sowing these seeds now gives them the opportunity to grow into nice strong plants which we can put in the ground in just a few weeks time. Timing is key for autumn zone hardy annuals. If you sow them too early they'll flower this season and die before winter and if you sow them too late then the root systems won't be strong enough to see them through the cold winter months. I'm here in the UK in zone 8b which means we get average extreme minimum temperatures of between minus 7 and minus 10 degrees celsius and I'm happy to plant out all of the hardy annuals in the ground and leave them minimally protected over winter. But for each variety in this video I'll mention what temperatures they're tolerant down to and whether you should sow them in your greenhouse and leave them there over winter, plant them out or wait until spring depending on what growing zone you're in. If you don't know what growing zone you're in then a quick google search will help you find the answer. So avoid accidentally killing your overwintered hardy annuals by watching this video and following the guidance that I have on sowing these six seeds. Firstly on to the method of seed sowing and I'm going to be using soil blocking today as it's my preferred method of seed starting. You can fit way more seedlings in a small space and the plants grow healthier root systems which experience less transplant shock when you plant them out into the ground and that works to our advantage with hardy annuals because we want them to go out in the ground and get established as quick as possible so that they can grow nice and strong before winter. I'm mainly going to be using my 112 soil blocker today which is the perfect size for starting annual seedlings. If you want to know more about soil blocking then I put together a free guide which helps you with soil mixes, when to transplant your seedlings and the common mistakes that people make with soil blocking. So if you want to grab that guide then I'll put a QR code on screen over here and you can grab that for free. My compost of choice is Melcourt Silver Grow. I've been using it for a few years now with good success. I simply wet the compost enough until you can ball it in your hand and it sticks together. Today I'm also adding some goop from the Soilsmiths who are the sponsor of today's video. The goop is a concentrated extract of soil food web microbes. This helps to establish living biology in the compost which plants can take with them into the soil. Having living biology around the plant roots is a huge benefit leading to healthier plants which are more pest and disease resistant, have thicker stems and leaves, be more stress tolerant and produce more exudates for the soil microbes below. Adding the goop can also help with drought resistance something that I know lots of us have been facing this season. The Soilsmiths also produce the living feed which can be used in conjunction with the goop. It supports microbial life and provides nutrition which is easily absorbed by the plants. It's designed to be a foliar feed which I've been using on my field crops this season but I've also been watering my soil blocks with it to help them grow nice and strong. All of my spring sown seedlings were super strong and healthy this year and I'm looking forward to doing the same with my autumn sown ones. If you'd like to try out the Soilsmiths products for yourself then scan the QR code on screen or click the link in the description to head to their website. Once my soil mix is ready I'll make my blocks so that I'm ready to get sowing and I'm starting with one of my favorites, snapdragons. Snapdragons are such tiny little seeds but they are so effective in arrangements. They are a really nice spike flower that adds depth to arrangements so I always grow lots and lots of them every year. There's so many different beautiful varieties of snapdragons that you can choose from but you need to be careful about which ones you choose for overwintering because snapdragons are classified into groups based upon the environmental conditions that they like to grow in and for overwintering we want to choose snapdragons that are in group one. That includes varieties like Legend, Chantilly and Snap Star. These varieties can tolerate shorter days and less light so that they can flower early next spring. If you want more detail about growing snapdragons in general then I have a dedicated video all about them that I'll link in the description. I'm going to start off sowing the snapdragon seeds by sprinkling the top of the blocks with some vermiculite because the seeds don't really like to be covered but I like to give the seed something to nestle into that's going to retain moisture around the seed. So once this is done I'll tip the seeds out into my hand and I'll just try and put one or two seeds per block. Usually it doesn't end up that and I end up with about seven or eight seeds per block but I'm sowing these two really gorgeous varieties today, Snap Star Champagne and Snap Star Pink and I've only started growing Snap Star this season. I grew the Snap Star Champagne and it's a really really gorgeous peachy yellow colour that seems to go well with almost everything. We're still getting pretty warm temperatures here in the UK at the moment and snapdragons seem to like a temperature of around 20 degrees to germinate so I'm not going to put them in the polytunnel at this time of year because it's still quite warm. I'm going to keep them outside in the shade of the polytunnel where they're not getting too much heat and direct sunlight. Once they've germinated and grown on a little larger I'll plant them out at nine inch spacing in the field. Snapdragon seedlings can tolerate temperatures down to minus five degrees celsius so can be planted outside safely in growing zones 7 to 11. In colder climates they should be kept in an unheated greenhouse or polytunnel over winter and planted out once the worst of the weather has passed. Okay I've moved into the polytunnel because it's really windy outside and I keep losing seeds to the wind so next I'm moving on to olea and olea is a really delicate lacy flower that's perfect for spring arrangements but despite its delicate appearance it's actually really cold tolerant and it can tolerate down to minus 20 degrees celsius. So I'm going to just sow these onto my soil blocks and then I'm going to cover with them with a light sprinkling of vermiculite since they like a little bit of light to germinate and they like temperatures of between 18 and 20 degrees for germination so just like with the snapdragons I'm going to put them outside to germinate since we're still getting quite warm temperatures. Germination can be a little bit slow and irregular and it can take between two and four weeks. Sometimes the seed needs cold stratification and what you might want to do is stick your seed packet in the freezer when it arrives and leave it there for a couple of weeks and then sow the seed and that might trigger the plant into thinking that it's gone through cold stratification and it's now spring and it can germinate. Otherwise you could sow the seeds and then just leave them over winter to naturally experience the winter and the cold temperatures and you might find that they continue to germinate in spring. Once they've grown on I'll plant them out at about nine inch spacing. Olea likes cool weather so you might come to realize that once the temperatures warm up in spring and get above 27 degrees celsius then the plant stops performing as well and then it'll start to die back. Nigella also known as love in a mist has beautiful delicate foliage but it's a real workhorse in the garden and the flowers are just as useful as the seed pods that they produce. Nigella can tolerate temperatures down to minus four degrees celsius and perform best when they're kept under temperatures of 24 degrees celsius so it's happiest when we get mild autumns and winters here. If you're growing in zones seven or above then you can plant them outside and overwinter them but if you're in a climate that's even colder than that then I would recommend sowing them and overwintering them in a greenhouse or a cold frame and planting them out when the worst of the winter has passed. Alternatively if you're in a really cold climate then I would wait until spring to sow them. I'm sowing these on the surface of my soil blocks and I'm just going to cover them really lightly with some vermiculite as they do like light to germinate. Nigella takes two to three weeks to germinate so don't worry if you don't see anything happening straight away they should germinate eventually. It also doesn't really like to be disturbed once it's growing, it's got quite a delicate root system which is where the soil blocks come in really handy because you can transplant them outside with minimal disturbance but if you're not soil blocking then it might be beneficial for you to direct sow them in the ground instead. Once they're ready to be planted out in the ground in a few weeks time hopefully then I'll plant them out at six to nine inch spacing. Nigella isn't fussy about the type of soil that it grows in, you can grow it in quite poor soil as long as it isn't waterlogged or boggy over winter. Like I said the plants don't like it when it starts to get too warm in summer so it's ideal to get them autumn sown so that they can flower in late spring early summer before it gets too warm. Next I'm sowing scabiosa also known as pin cushion flower and you can actually see some of my spring sown scabiosa in the foreground here. That one is oxford blue but today I'm going to be sowing lavender and rose. It comes in all sorts of pink, purple, dark maroon colours and salmon and it's a really really useful element to put into bouquets and arrangements to sit a little bit higher like this and you can see them kind of bobbing around in the breeze and I really like the effect that they give in arrangements so I always sow this one every season. Scabios seeds need light for germination so I'm just going to press them into the indent on the surface of the soil blocks and leave them uncovered. Scabios can tolerate temperatures down to minus 12 degrees celsius but if they experience prolonged frozen periods then the plants will probably just die. So I'd advise to probably plant it outdoors from zone six or upwards and if you're in a colder climate then sow it and leave it in a greenhouse or a cold frame over winter or wait until spring to sow it. Once scabios are large enough to be planted outside then plant them at 9 to 12 inch spacing. Campanula medium or canterbury bells is a cottage garden classic. It produces tall stems which have beautiful bell-shaped flowers on them that come in double and single petals as well as purple, pink and white. I'm sowing the crown variety today which is classed as a biennial and it needs that period of cold over the winter in order to produce flowers properly next season. Some canterbury bells hybrids like the champion variety is bred so that it doesn't need that cold period of establishment over winter to produce flowers so you can sow that one in spring. Campanula can tolerate temperatures down to between minus 15 and minus 10 degrees celsius so it's pretty cold tolerant but prolonged freezing can damage the plants beyond repair so if you live in a really cold climate then it's maybe best to sow the spring varieties rather than overwintering them or sow them and keep them in a greenhouse or a cold frame over winter. So I'd recommend planting them out if you are in zone 6 or above. These seeds are also really tiny just like the snapdragon seeds so I'm just going to sow them onto the surface of the soil blocks and leave them uncovered. Germination usually takes two to three weeks for these canterbury bells. Once they've grown big enough to plant out I'll plant them at around 12 inch spacing to give them enough room to grow big enough before winter. They're like a sunny or partially shaded spot with well draining soil. Last but certainly not least is one of my absolute favorites these Icelandic poppies. They have such delicate papery looking petals which just look unreal actually and they're a perfect flower to have in spring that go really well with ranunculus and all of those beautiful spring colors. It's best to give them temperatures of between 15 and 18 degrees for germination but once they've germinated and they're establishing then they prefer cooler temperatures to grow on. They can tolerate really cold temperatures down to minus 18 degrees so another one that looks really delicate but is in fact pretty cold tolerant. These are also some really tiny seeds that are almost as small as snapdragons and I'm just going to sow them onto the surface of these soil blocks. Germination can occur between five and seven days but it can also be sporadic so it's worth being patient with them. The plants are also sensitive to humidity so it's best not to overhead water them but water them from below which is natural for soil blocks anyway but if you're growing them in cell trays try to put the tray into a shallow tray of water to allow the water to soak up from below rather than overhead watering. Grow on the poppies until they get large enough and try to keep them at temperatures below 21 degrees celsius because then they'll stop growing, start looking stressed and die off. Plant them out at 9 to 12 inch spacing in well draining soil and hopefully you'll get to enjoy these beautiful flowers next spring. So that's six hardy annuals sown and ready to overwinter. Snapdragons, olea, nigella, scabius, campanula and icelandic poppies. Hopefully now you know which ones you can put straight in the ground overwinter and which ones you should offer a little bit more protection to depending on where you are in the world. Next summer hopefully you'll have flowers weeks ahead of anybody who decided to wait until spring instead. Thanks so much for watching this video and I'll see you again soon on another video all about growing cut flowers.