How to Choose Flower Seeds for the Garden

Flowers are available for purchase as potted plants, bulbs or seeds. Looking at a live plant makes it easy to visualize a lush, green garden dappled with blue and purple flowers, just as it says on the back of the plant marker. In contrast, choosing flower seeds to plant leaves a lot to the imagination of the gardener and their knowledge of selecting flower seeds.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Flower seeds

1. Begin by deciding on the style of flower garden and the types of flowers you like. If you want a formal rose or cactus garden, there are no seeds to buy, only plants. Sunflower lovers are lucky with a selection of many seed varieties.

2. Check the sun and the soil conditions of the flower garden area. The required growing environment for your choice of flower is in the catalog's seed description or on the back of the seed packet. Make sure your garden area will meet the needs of the desired flowers.

3. Decide whether the flower garden will contain annuals (need to be planted every year), perennials (come back year after year) or biennials (flower every other year).

4. Choose a flower seed based on the height of the mature plant. This information is in the flower description. Check to see if the flower is a vine, ground cover or grows to 12-feet tall and requires staking.

5. Select from the easy-to-grow flower seeds found at the supermarket. Common flower seeds for gardeners include marigold, nasturtium, morning glory and sunflower.

6. Choose from the new varieties of flowers offered each year. Many of these specialty flower seeds are available for 1 year only or a limited season, so buy the seeds that other gardeners may not be able to find.

7. Gather flower seeds from a friend or relative's flower garden to use next year. Protect the seeds from moisture and light.

Tips & Warnings

• Some flowers are only available as plants or bulbs.