Flowers to grow from seed

FRESHNESS: WHAT A DIFFERENCE THE RAIN MAKES

- Alice Spenser-Higgs

What a difference rain makes to a garden. No amount of watering can achieve that same freshness and growth that seems to occur almost overnight.

Up until now, the intense heat and lack of rain has not created favourable conditions for growing from seed. But after last week's rain, the soil is soft and damp enough to make it easy to dig over and for seed to germinate.

There is a mouthwatering range of flowers that can be grown from seed. Kirchhoffs has some 60 different varieties of flowers, including mixes, for all the seasons.

Summer flowers make up most of the range and most are heirloom and open pollinated varieties. Just remember, do not weed until seedlings are tall enough to be identifiable and this applies especially to marigolds and cosmos.

WATER-WISE FILLERS

Those that make the most impact are the varieties that can be scatter sown to fill in between succulents, in pavement gardens as edgings and in beds to fill the gaps between shrubs or to act as colourful groundcovers.

Portulaca, alyssum, marigolds, gazanias or verbena are spreading or low growing flowers that will add colour to water-wise plantings of succulents and aloes.