Tucked into soil pots in our greenhouse, seeds are doing that miraculous thing called germination. The potential of tiny seeds always amazes me; I’ve loved watching the progress of annual, biennial, and perennial seeds I planted back at the end of October. The dianthus, geum, campanula, and oriental poppies required transplanting into larger pots already, which makes me consider the advice I’ve read in some garden books about seeding once for the long haul in large pots — then simply planting in the garden in spring.

I’m immensely thankful for the hundreds of empty pots and seed trays left in the garden shed by Coppertop’s previous owners.

Earlier this week I sowed two special varieties of beautiful cosmos: a puffy white called Double Click Snow Puff and a garnet red called Rubenza. Both seed packets were tucked into my Christmas stocking, and both are from Territorial Seed Company, I mean SANTA! I also planted a packet of the basic Burpee’s cosmos mix.

We have a large grow light that I intend to use on all seeds I start now so that they will reach garden size more quickly. When I asked Hubby if we have an extra timer I can set the grow light with, he responded by reminding me of the huge number of timers he used to light up our home for the holidays! How could I forget?

Last year I grew sweet peas successfully for the first time, and they lasted into fall. Soon I’ll start four varieties of sweet peas also from Santa via one of my favorite west coast suppliers, Swallowtail Garden Seeds in — wait for it 😉 — SANTA Rosa, CA. I can’t wait to enjoy the fragrance and colors promised by Lord Nelson, Air Warden, Beaujolais, and Barry Dare varieties this summer.  Makes me think Santa in his red suit just may be partial to red flowers.

In the next few days I hope to get more pots ready for the grow light. I have seeds of heliotrope, delphinium, black poppy, and the amazing blue poppy to plant, among others.

For me, selecting and planting flower seeds is a bit like releasing a kid in a candy store; my appetite is larger than what I can digest. Thankfully, we have spots in the perennial beds for newcomers and one entirely new, empty, large raised bed near the chicken mansion. Starting plants from seed is the most economical way to produce the masses I need. Also, the variety of selection available in seed is oh so exciting.  Now to narrow down the veggie seed list as I plan to fill these beds again…