Most gardeners don’t worry about flower garden seeds until late winter or early spring. In fact, there are quite a few types of flower seeds that can be started in the fall when you may not have to do anything in the garden. Spring annuals, cool loving annuals, some perennials and biennials can start in the fall. These plants are a great way to fill out your garden when it starts to go dormant in the fall. Sweet pea, sweet alyssum, candytuft, and calendula are cool, loving annuals that can fill in holes in your garden as they grow rapidly.
Garden flower seeds sown in the fall also tend to have a higher germination rate than those sown in late winter or spring. Some popular plants to plant in the fall are California poppy, California bluebell, blue woodruff, Mexican tulip poppy, calkia, snapdragon, Irish bells, scarlet sage, and sweetheart. fog, among others. Self-sown annuals are very hardy plants and tend to be good plants to start in the fall, as they can withstand frost.
Biennials, which are plants that have a two-year life cycle, in which the leaves grow the first year and then the flowers bloom the second, are perfect for early planting in fall or late summer. Biennials that may start in the fall include evening primrose, Sweet William, hollyhock, Canterbury bells, foxglove, and black-eyed Susan. There are some perennials that can also be started early, such as some sunflowers, sage species, columbine, and purple echinacea.
When you are starting flower garden seeds, you may need to treat those seeds to get them to germinate. However, certain seeds will have specific procedures that may be different from other seeds. Most perennial flower seeds need a cool season, also called cold stratification, which mimics winter. You can leave your seeds outside in the fall or use a cold frame. Many times the seeds are also treated with scarification, which hardens the seed coat so the seed can absorb more water.
Flower garden seeds can be soaked in warm water until they start to pop, but they should be planted very soon. The timing for this can be quite difficult if it is your first time. Some seeds, mainly for woody shrubs and trees, need an acid treatment to germinate. You don’t need anything fancy, vinegar will do. Fire treatment has also been used, but this is generally for woodlands and not flower gardens. With the proper pretreatment you will not have a problem with any of your seeds.