Seed Starting with Baker Creek Flower Seeds
There's still time to order your garden seeds! The process of ordering through seed catalogs can be daunting, but it also provides many advantages, such as being able to choose seeds based on how they are grown and how they are treated.
Here at my farm, we start sowing seeds indoors soon after the New Year. This week, we're planting trays of flower seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company - one of our favorite sources. Started in 1998 as a hobby, it has since grown into North America’s largest heirloom seed establishment.
Here are some photos, enjoy. And be sure to follow this blog on Instagram @marthastewartblog - we're having so much fun posting on our new page!
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- Baker Creek in Mansfield, Missouri, offers one of the largest selections of 19th century heirloom seeds from Europe and Asia, and now features more than 1,000 different seeds in its catalog.
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- We plant many Baker Creek seeds every year and love how they grow. Each of the colorful packets shows how the flowers look when in bloom or how the vegetables look when mature and ready to harvest.
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- Inside my head house, Ryan chooses all the necessary seed starting trays. These can be saved from year to year, so don’t throw them away after the season. Seed starting trays are available in all sizes and formations. It’s best to use a pre-made seed starting mix that contains the proper amounts of vermiculite, perlite and peat moss.
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- Ryan fills several trays at once in a production line process. Select the right kind of tray based on the size of the seeds. The containers should be at least two-inches deep and have adequate drainage holes.
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- Here are two packets of seeds with their corresponding markers. Hollyhocks, Alcea rosea, can reach five to eight-feet tall and up to about four feet across. The flowers come in an array of colors, from white, red, pink, yellow, and even black.
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- Hollyhock seeds are brown and quite large in comparison to other flower seeds. They form in brown seed pods on the Hollyhock stems during late summer and early autumn.
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- Ryan drops one to three seeds into each cell. It’s always a good idea to keep a record of when seeds are sown, when they germinate, and when they are transplanted. These observations will help organize a schedule for the following year.
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- He gently presses down on each seed so it is fully covered with soil.
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- Canterbury bells, Campanula medium, are elegant, graceful, and delicate flowers native to southern Europe. They have long been enjoyed in landscapes and cut flower arrangements. Canterbury Bells are biennial plants, meaning that the large, showy blooms appear in the plant’s second year.
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- Ryan also planted some Asters. This mix produces clusters of large, glistening sea urchin shaped blooms in pastel colors in pink, white, and lavender.
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- Aster seeds range from light to dark brown, and are long with pointed ends. They’re also fairly large and easy to see and handle.
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- Look closely and one can see the seeds in the cell. These seeds will be selectively thinned in a few weeks. The process eliminates the weaker sprout and prevents overcrowding, so seedlings don’t have any competition for soil nutrients or room to mature.
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- After each tray is seeded, Ryan covers them by leveling the soil and filling the tray holes back in with the medium.
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- This packet contains Balloon flower seeds, Platycodon grandiflorus, a species of herbaceous flowering perennial plant of the family Campanulaceae, and the only member of the genus Platycodon. It is native to East Asia and is also known as the Chinese bellflower or platycodon. The balloon-shaped blossoms open to a unique star shape, these in soft pink.
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- Some seeds are very small – be very careful when pouring them out of the packet. Balloon flowers have tiny, brown seeds that look almost like miniature grains of brown rice.
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- Every tray is well-marked. Ryan places a label at one end of each row indicating the variety of seeds that are planted. In some cases, one variety gets three or four rows.
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- These Black Bowle viola seeds are deep purple to inky black – a charming variety popularized by E.A. Bowles, a prominent horticulturist of the late 19th and early 20th century. The Historic Flower Pansy Mix includes an assortment of shades from plum to to bronze with canary yellow centers.
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- Have you ever grown stocks? These are Murasaki No Uta – a royal purple, single-stemmed variety that is fragrant and resplendent in the garden and in a vase. Averaging 34 to 40 inches tall, each plant produces a robust stalk topped with colorful ruffled blooms.
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- Lace flowers are delicate, light colored blooms that gracefully sway atop wiry but sturdy stems. Plants reach up to three-feet tall and blooms average about two-and-a-half-inches across, with a subtle, sweet fragrance.
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- Ryan takes all the trays into the greenhouse where they can get a good drink.
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- On average, it takes at least a week or two for flowers seeds to germinate and then at least 50 to 60 days until flowers appear – some up to 100-days, but we’re sure to have many gorgeous blooms this summer. I can’t wait. Follow my blog and see!
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