what to sow now for really early flowers - poppies or snapdragon ???

8 years ago

I have 10 large containers where I sowed zinnia and they have been flowering beautifully. As weather is cooling down, I am thinking by next month zinnia would be gone and I will miss all the colours !

What can I sow, to get flowers as early as possible! pansies and primulas are too small for the container. Looking for something taller. Are Icelandic poppies good to sow and will flower early next year or shall I plant some tall variety of snapdragons? Any other suggestion... Any bulbs ? sweetpeas on thin trellis? I live in London and it is more like zone 8-9 but we do get frosts and cold wet days.

I dont mind if those plants die by May as I will plant zinnias again on those containers.

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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

Everything you list should live through the winter outdoors in London as long as you can keep the slugs and snails off.

To me 'early' would mean March-ish, so if you're happy with May for biennials and June for annuals there's a much better choice.

There's no need to be without flowers in the winter either. But there's nothing I can think of that you can raise from seed for this coming winter.

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Comments (10)

docmom_gw
8 years ago
Snapdragons from seed will be much later than annual poppies. I'd go with the poppies. Clarkia is a nice, early blooming plant, also. I used to wintersow Clarkia for the earliest, easiest blooms.

Martha
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
8 years ago
For really early colour in containers bulbs can't be beaten. If you plant February Gold or January now you could have daffs in January in London. Crocus would be even earlier and tulips would follow on. Other than bulbs your earliest hopes are forget-me-nots and wallflowers, both of which needed to be sown a while back but if it's just for containers you could buy some plants.

Nothing that I can think of can be sown now and flower much before June in our climate because our springs are so long and cool. Autumn sowing of annuals
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daisy08(London UK)
Original Author
8 years ago
I did sow wallflowers last month so i can plant some of those. I will look for early flowering and tall daffs and wintersow clarkia.

I have pansies, primulas, crocus bulbs and stocks but looking for something taller.
diggerdee zone 6 CT
8 years ago
Some good ideas above. How about calendula? Nasturtiums? Maybe bachelor's buttons? I'm having a hard time remembering the bloom times of these, but I think they are early....
daisy08(London UK)
Original Author
8 years ago
bachelor's buttons looks like good option as they are tall.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Daisy can you define what you would consider 'early'. Calendula and cornflowers (aka Batchelor's Buttons) wouldn't flower before June if sown now. Nasturtiums are not hardy so if sprouted now would be killed as soon as there was a frost. They self sow on my allotment but do not even germinate until May. Basically you won't get flowers before early summer from annuals sown now outdoors in the UK because our temperatures don't rise fast enough in the spring. All the early flowers I can think of, other than bulbs, are biennials which make a good plant the previous year.
daisy08(London UK)
Original Author
8 years ago
Ok. By early i mean as early as possible :)

New garden is lovely with flowers right now and i am going to miss them when winter strikes. I have these biennials around 6 inch tall atm - wallflowers, sweet williams, foxgloves, hollyhocks. I am thinking of planting wallflowers and sweetwilliams near patio where i can keep an eye on them and slugs.

Hollyhocks i dont have too many so i will overwinter them in pots. Cant risk them on ground. Foxgloves i dont know whether to over winter in pots or plant out.

I also have pansies, primulas and stocks though i dont know if they will live through winter of flower and die in autumn.

Still it doesnt look enough . I will be getting daffs and tulip bulbs. What else should i get?
daisy08(London UK)
Original Author
8 years ago
Flora, after your message, I didnt report back here(sorry about that) but looked at winter flowering shrubs and bought loads of winter flowering fragrant shrubs and camellias to keep me going through winter. i did read some of your posts in other forums about sarcococcoa etc :)

From what I sowed last year, I have got lots of flowers from wallflowers and primulas now and some flowers on stocks and sweet williams are in buds.

I had planted out mixture of hardy annual seeds and they survived and growing.

all spring flowering bulbs did great and right now I have a garden full of flowers again!
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
8 years ago
Good to hear your progress here and on your other thread. Spring was so early here I had daffodils in bud in the window boxes on 12th night. I'm sure that in London you barely had a Winter at all. Have a good year in the garden.

what to sow now for really early flowers - poppies or snapdragon ???

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

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docmom_gw

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what to sow now for really early flowers - poppies or snapdragon ???

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

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docmom_gw

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