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Annuals and biennials can be started indoors from
seeds, sown directly in the garden, or purchased
as transplants. If you start plants from seeds
indoors, the seeds are usually sown eight to ten
weeks before the last spring frost. If you raise
your own transplants, be sure to harden them off
by exposing them to outside conditions before
planting in their intended site.
Annuals seeded in the garden sometimes fail to
germinate properly because the soil surface crusts
and prevents entry of water. One way to overcome
this is to make a furrow in the soil about 1/2-inch
deep and fill with vermiculite (if the soil is
dry, water the furrow before filling with vermiculite).
Then make a shallow furrow in the vermiculite
and sow the seed at the rate recommended on the
package. Cover the seeds with vermiculite and
use a nozzle adjusted to a fine mist to water
the seeded area thoroughly. Keep the seed bed
well watered or cover with a mulch such as newspaper
to prevent excessive evaporation and soil drying.
Remove the mulch promptly after germination begins
so young seedlings will receive adequate sunlight
When most outdoor-seeded annuals develop their
first pair of true leaves, they should be thinned
to the recommended spacing. Excess seedlings can
often be transplanted to another spot. This is
especially true for seedlings growing in vermiculite-filled
furrows. Zinnias are an exception to this rule
of thinning. In many cultivars of zinnias, some
flowers may appear with a large, nearly naked
corolla and few colorful petals. This phenomenon
is sometimes referred to as “Mexican hats.”
To eliminate such plants, sow two or three seeds
at each location, wait until the plants start
flowering, and then remove plants with this undesirable
characteristic. Thin the remaining plants to the
recommended 8- to 12-inch spacing. Another exception
is sweet alyssum, which is particularly susceptible
to damping-off fungal disease. To insure a good
stand of alyssum, sow seeds in hills.
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