Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Flowers? Not Yet, but I'm Hopeful...

One of the things I did this weekend was to plant a ton of flower seeds. Here in Eastern Washington, flowers that I used to consider perennials, I've discovered are actually annuals, which means I end up spending way too much on seasonal color to chase away the winter and welcome spring. We are fortunate to have a big yard, so I end up buying a lot of plants. In addition to planting more and more bulbs every year, this year I've decided to try starting my flowers as seeds. I figure I already buy them as tiny plants and care for them from there, so why can't I cut out the middle man and start them from seeds myself.

So, that is what I did. I planted cosmos, impatiens, verbena, marigold, zinnias, and sunflowers. I couldn't believe it, but I actually ran out of planters before I ran out of seeds. I headed to Home Depot today to get more, so those little seeds will be sown soon. In the meantime, I filled up Superman's awesome seed starter with the grow lights, so I moved the rest to my herb window. (Ignore the sad little shamrock on the right...Tuck ate it and we're nursing it back to life...bad kitty!)


Yep, this is just the over-flow. Do you recognize some of the interesting things I used as pots? We used the sundae cups from McDonald's as planters (greenhouses in the kids' rooms; mine don't have the lids). I planted impatiens in egg shells. I found cute little pots in the Dollar Spot at Target. (They also have purple and pink if you're interested - I wasn't.) So, keep your fingers crossed that my little flowers grow and grow...it will save us a ton of money!

3 comments:

Alicia The Snowflake said...

Oh wow! How exciting! I can't wait to see your flowers. Makes me want to get out there and try to grow some of my own. And I have a black thumb :o)

Unknown said...

Grow flowers Grow. I'm sticking to Veggies and the plants that my friends are going to give me, day lilies, hostas and some other cool thing with red flowers that I can't remember. They are giving me cuttings as theirs are getting out of control. Growing flowers from seeds scares me a little. Let me know how it works out for you.

Erin said...

I've never grown flowers from seeds...ever! I'm excited to see how they do. We do have day lilies and hostas that we'll be able to split off in a few years, but not yet. Bulbs can be thinned, too. Again, we're not there yet.