When searching for cheap flowers your trip to the local gardening center will convince you that flowers in pots, whether bright-faced annuals or statuesque landscape specimens, are not cheap. To save money and gain access to a vastly wider variety of cheap flowers and greenery, consider starting your own plants and flowerrs from seeds.
Among the easiest of all the cheap flowers to grow are sunflowers (Helianthus spp). From 15 foot tall towering giants to knee high imps, brilliant yellow, ivory, mahogany or flaming orange petals surrounding a dark brown center, sunflowers make a fine choice for the gardener interested in effect, ease and pleasure. Happy birds flock to the giant drooping seed heads when they ripen in late summer, and the smaller blossomed sunflowers will draw butterflies in clouds.
Few flowers are as rewarding as the sunflower for child and adult alike. Sunflowers are the ultimate “kid” flower. The seeds are large and easy to handle, they come up quickly after planting and some sunflowers sprout so fast you can almost see them grow! Plant a large block of mammoth sunflowers, leaving an open space in the center big enough for a ‘secret’ meeting spot, or a put in a row of midget sunflowers that bloom right at eye level for your toddler. Any way you do it, there’s a sunflower for every purpose and they are all delightful.
Another excellent great flower choice is the nasturtium (Tropaeolum Majus). Again, like the sunflower, nasturtiums are easy and gratifying for your budding gardner, and lush and sophisticated enough for the adult. Add in that the leaves,flowers and buds are all edible and the “nasty” with its orange, apricot or mahogany blossoms and upright or trailing stems takes its rightful place at the top of your favorite flower list.
A row of nasturtium seeds right along the front of the garden bed as a sentinel of bug repellants. Or make up a hanging basket for “nastys” with a trailing habit and hang it where it gets a lot of sun, but some afternoon shade and watch the butterflies and hummingbirds come by for a visit. This is double “bang for your buck”, cheap flowers and hummingbird antics! Nasturtium flowers come in the plain orange variety, or plant newer hybrids with double, ruffled blossoms and pastel colors that are easy on the eyes.
Not to be forgotten in a listing of cheap flowers that are easy to grow from seed are heirloom sweet peas (Lathyrus odorata). Notice the “heirloom” part of the name. Hybridizers swapped size for scent, so newer varieties have larger blooms but lack that essential quality. With the same assets that recommend sunflowers and nasturtiums for children, heirloom sweet peas are brilliantly colored, quick growing and attract butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. Trained up wires on a wall, a trellis or tumbling over the back fence, heirloom sweet peas just can’t be beat. Is there anything more charming than a muddy fisted child offering you a bouquet of sweet peas?
These few choices are a small introduction to the wonder and ease of growing flowers from seed. There are literally thousands upon thousands of choices. Some seeds can be found around the world, some no further away than your own region. Some seeds need to be cosseted and pleaded with, others seem to sprout in your hand. Whatever your level of gardening expertise, there’s a seed for you and a whole bunch of cheap flowers waiting to be enjoyed.
Natural Wild Flower Seeds
Whether you have a big empty space in your yard, or a small patch in a little back garden, the solution to getting an almost maintenance free patch of wonderful colors is to spread wild flower seeds. In today’s world, you can get seeds shipped to you from all over the world. Not all will thrive well in your climate, so attention has to be paid to the needs of every wild flower mix. Nevertheless, you can create a carpet of color with relatively little effort.
When deciding on wild flower seeds, the first thing to consider is the amount of sunlight it will get, and choose the flowers accordingly. Sun loving flowers will not do well between trees, and shade loving wild flowers won’t do well in the blazing desert sun.
The biggest decision will have to make will be what kind of pattern, if any, should you give your garden? Should you plant in patches of colors or use a mixture of seeds and let nature take it’s course? The jury is still out. You can do whatever pleases your eye.
Preparing the soil is very important when thinking of using wild flower seeds. To enable the seeds to germinate, the area should be clean of weeds and surface roots. If you like to, you can use pesticides. It will kill the weeds, but will stay in the ground.
You could turn the soil over and clear it by hand, if the area is not to big, or you can cover the area with plastic sheeting for about two weeks and let the sun bake the weeds away and the plastic prevent the top layer from getting any moisture.
When that is done, all you have to do is create grooves with a rake, and water the area thoroughly. Mix the wildflower seeds with some soil, soil being twice as much as the seeds, and sow. Keep the wildflower seeds hydrated until they germinate and grow a stalk. Now you can put the watering on a schedule and step back and enjoy watching them grow. From now on water will be all the wildflowers will need.
Wildseed Farms in Texas has an incredible selection of wild flower seeds and about 350,000 visitors a year to watch the flowers those seeds produce. The Wildflower Seed is a company in Napa Valley, California that has mixture per regions of the country and special mixes like poppies or butterfly-hummingbird mix and a cut flower mix.
A carpet of color in your yard or in the bare spot in the front of the house is not that difficult or expensive to achieve if you are using wild flower seeds as your primary method.
Fay Salmons writes about wild flower seeds at http://www.bettergardensupplies.com
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cheap flower seeds saving nasturtium seedsPosted in Annuals, flowergardening, Garden Flowers, Perennials