So here’s the story. When I decided to start planting flowers in abundance I was looking for white sunflower seeds. i had no idea where to look for seeds and just googled “white sunflower seeds.” I then went to the first hit and looked over their merchandise. I was super excited to find that the website had white sunflowers and there were only like $4 for a pack of 50. All of this was amazing. I then surfed the site and found some cosmos and zinnia seeds, both of which were flowers I had heard about that week and added them to my basket. I also heard that dahlias were nice and found some seeds for those and thought “why not?” A few days later I was the proud owner of seven seed packets that were ready to be planted.

I planted out most of the seeds the hour I got them and then went outside multiple times a day to see if any sprouts had come up. Not much did come up with in a month. I think like four of the white sunflowers sprouted, a few from a mix sprouted, and a couple of zinnias did as well. While I am sure that I was not perfect in planting my seeds, this seems a really low germination percentage.

Now we have a few flowers blooming from that planting and they are pretty but they are not what I expected for a cutting garden. The zinnias I bought are about three inches tall and have the tiniest little flower on the plant!

The sunflowers have 90 days to maturity and they may not make it before we experience our first frost this year.

The cosmos are beautiful, but the tallest plant is maybe a foot tall.

The mix of sunflowers are branching and the stems are too short to cut for a vase.

The dahlias did nothing.

All in all the plants that did grow are not really anything that I could use for a cut flower. Looking at what I ordered for my first seed purchase is rather funny now. I have since found more reputable seed producers. I also do my research on flower varieties to see if they make good cut flowers. Sometimes I still shop with my heart and put things in the cart that won’t work. I did this recently with some anemone corms that were so pretty. Then I heard a podcast the next day that said the anemones I ordered weren’t the right ones for cut flowers. Thankfully I was able to cancel my order and alls well that ends well.

When shopping for seeds of bulbs I have started to make sure I follow these rules for myself:

1. Shop at companies that have good reputations with flower farmers.
2. Do research before I shop!
3. Read the facts of the flower to learn things like days to maturity and plant height.
4. Set a limit (holy cow I could go broke just shopping for seeds and bulbs!)
5. Try a couple new things but don’t go crazy!
6. Set a cut off amount of cut off date.
7. Research how the seeds want to be planted. Don’t count just on the seed package to give you all the information you need to know.

So now I am able feel better about buying seeds that are likely to germinate and bloom in a timely fashion! Below are some of the photos from this first few seeds that are blooming now.