What Seeds Shall I Sow?

-the day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.

January and February is a great time to reflect on the past year and learn from it, so I can adapt and prepare for the next growing season. I always feel like it a great time to plan for the coming growing season and get that “to do list” that’s in my head on paper. Getting started on a blog page was on the top of the list! So I’m happy to finally commit to documenting my adventures with you about how we grow everything from flowers for bouquets, herbs, veggies and just living the ol’ farm life. It really is the best life. I can’t wait to share with you all the trials and tricks we have learned over the years to get to a point where I can say that I think I might know a thing or two about stewardship to the earth. With organically growing and giving back to the earth so it will be here for future generations. So if there is a plant variety that doesn’t grow well in my garden, it gets booted out. I refuse to add anything to my garden that could potentially hurt myself, the earth or add any toxic residue to the food we grow and eat. Regardless there are some flowers that won’t make the list from last year and others that are winners every year no matter what. I always get super excited about trying new flowers in hopes to finding more winners. So here is the run down as to what made the yes list, new list and heck no list.

Basic Yes List (every year no matter what) Start here if you are a beginner or have a small spot to add a cut flower garden.

Sunflowers- I like using single stem flowers and sowing seeds every week for several weeks so I get a continuous supply throughout the season. My favorite variety last year was Procut White Nite.

Zinnias- If anyone asks me if there was one flower to grow to start cutting your own bouquets, this would be the one. Zinnias are easy to grow and come in so many colours. Make sure you buy varieties that have longer stem lengths if you would like to use them for bouquets

Scabiosa- Aka Pincushions- Lovely little compact ball of colour to add a hit of white, pink or purple

Ammi or Queen Anne’s Lace. It’s truly like adding a lace to a dress. Ammi gives a bouquet a pop of white and interest.

Amaranthus- great filler

Lemon Basil and Cinnamon Basil- the bouquet gives of such a wonderful scent when basil is added and you can eat it!

Phlox- The smell!!! It’s truly heavenly and delicate.

Strawflowers- great for drying too!

Snapdragons- one of the first flowers to make their debut and they smell so amazing!

Heck No List:

Flowering cabbage- if you want to attract every moth for miles then this is the flower to buy. This flower is impossible to grow in the area as it get annihilated by moths. Not worth the headache.

Eucalyptus- I have to sow this so early in the year when I’m not quite ready to start watering and worrying about my flowers. With the short growing season in this area it hardly grows enough to harvest much off of it. I’m taking a break from this one this year.

Dahlia- I have some to plant because these suckers multiply every year but I haven’t had much success as it gets attacked by every bug imaginable. I will try them again but I tend to swear at these plants more so than enjoy them. I bought up a bunch of organza bags so I can try to save the flowers as they bloom but I won’t get my hopes up. If you want to stay organic, this is not the flower to grow.

Mignonette- This flower smells amazing and attracts so many bees but doesn’t look very nice. I would plant some again just for attracting all the amazing bees to the garden, but I didn’t use it in bouquets

Flowering Tobacco- Sticky gooey messy residue on the stem and potato bugs are attracted to it! This is an issue if you grow vegetables too. We grow a lot of potatoes so the last thing you want to do is plant flowering tobacco in the garden to attract more of those nasty critters.

Tweedia- I was so excited to grow this plant last year. The name alone was so interesting, but I was soon not so excited as it grew very short. This may work in a boutinere or small vase but not very useful for long stem bouquets.

New for 2022!!

I’m excited to add some more greenery and grasses to add some interest to my bouquets which include:

Sweet Annie

Lime Millet

Money Plant

Wheat and Flax

Jewel of Opar

Tansy

New Flower Varieties for 2022:

Pink Forget Me Not

Procut While Lite Sunflower

Nigella- Black Albion

Ammonbium Flower

Ranunculus!!!!

Anemone!!!!

Gladiolus!!!

So here is to the new season of seeds.

Where to buy seeds in Canada

A few of my favorites places to buy are:

Flowers: William Dam Seeds, Westcoast Seeds, Stems Seeds, Lily Stone Gardens, Veseys Seeds, and T and T Seeds

Herbs/Vegetables: Veseys, Westcoast Seeds, Heritage Harvest Seeds, and Richters Seeds. Richters has the best selection of herb seeds especially if you are into medicinal herbs.

See you in the garden!

-Jamie