Flower seeds FAQs
Growing flowers from seed is a great way to enjoy as broad a range of blooms as possible while spending less. To help you get your flower seeds off to the best possible start here are some answers to your frequently asked questions.
When to plant flower seeds
You can sow flower seeds pretty much all year around. In fact, you can start planting flower seeds like pansies, sweet peas, marigolds, delphiniums, and lots more as early as February. By late spring into the summer months, you’ll be sowing poppies, calendula, sunflowers, and cornflowers and during the autumn, nemesia, coleus, forget-me-nots and linaria. For more information on the wealth of seeds ready to sow each month, check our guide on what flower seeds to sow now.
How to plant flower seeds
All Suttons seeds come with easy-to-follow instructions on how to sow and grow them on the back of the packet. That said, some flowers are much easier to grow than others. If you’re gardening with children, for example, you’ll want seeds which germinate reliably, grow well, and produce vibrant blooms. In this case, you really can’t go wrong with pansies, cornflowers, wildflower mixes, edible nasturtiums, and ever-popular sunflower seeds. To help all our customers get more from their flower seeds, the team here at Suttons has written a wide selection of helpful flower seed articles and growing guides.
How long do flower seeds take to grow?
How long it takes flower seeds to grow varies widely depending on the variety you’re growing and the environment in which you sow the seeds. Seeds which you plant in a propagator on your kitchen windowsill are likely to germinate quicker than seeds planted outdoors, for example. A high-quality growing medium also helps, as does the fertility of your soil when you’re sowing outdoors. For precise information, check the product details section on the product page for growing instructions and an estimation of how long it will take to grow your choice of flower.
How to collect flower seeds
You can usually tell when flower seeds are ripe because the pods or capsules which contain them dry out and change colour. It’s important to wait until this happens before harvesting because unripe seeds won’t germinate. Some flowers have exploding seed heads – in this case, either place a bag over the seed head so that when it detonates, it does so into the bag, or cut the seed head off and place it into a bag to ripen. Always choose a dry day for harvesting flower seeds, and after picking the seed heads, crush them over card or paper and remove all the chaff. Leave the seeds on a sunny window ledge or similar to dry thoroughly before placing them in labelled paper envelopes and storing them in an airtight container containing desiccant sachets.
