Yes, do not be surprised - planting flowers in the winter is possible! You just need to know in the fall which flowers can be planted so that they please our eyes all season. And in the Kuban, flowers can be planted even in winter.
The main rule for all regions is to plant after the first frosts, when the ground has already turned into a frosty crust.
What flowers are planted before winter
- asters
- aquilegia
- delphiniums
- knapweed,
- alissum
- calendula
- echinacea
- marigold,
- eshsoltsiyu.
I would advise that winter sowing of aquilegia, delphinium, esholtzia be mandatory. Try not to sow them in the spring.
Why? Because these are flowers that sprout very tightly - they need stratification. If stratification is carried out at home, you will have to withstand seeds in the cold, for example, in a refrigerator or a snowdrift. And this, you see, is superfluous efforts.
One feature of growing dolphiniums. These flowers during winter sowing can change color. For example, sow white, and grow blue or purple. When it first happened to me, I decided that seed producers were to blame, but then I read information on the Internet about such an interesting effect of negative temperatures on seeds. To prevent this from happening, sow your delphinium seeds before winter - what you sow will grow.
Planting flowers in the fall - when to plant
It is best to sow the seeds of these flowers when the first frost touches the ground. In the middle lane it is about the beginning of November, and in our Kuban or south - the end of December or even January.
Of course, a bed for winter sowing flowers is prepared in advance - it must be dug up, and the soil on it is crushed - there should be no lumps of earth. Prepare the grooves in advance, and so that the wind does not fall asleep, cover the bed with a piece of old plywood, roofing felt or something else.
But it doesn’t matter if you haven’t done the grooves. There is an exit! Sprinkle the seeds of flowers on the frozen ground, and sprinkle them on top with pre-harvested soil, which was still warm. It may be purchased land.
By the way, marigolds can be sown before winter.
I love them very much! The abundance of colors! Unusually bright decoration of the flowerbed for the whole summer and until the cold weather. But, there is one "but." For planting before winter, buy seeds of small flowering undersized varieties. Tall varieties sown in winter, for some reason, grow up with some kind of flawed, ugly.
One important tip! When sowing flowers in the winter, do not sprinkle a thick layer of earth on top of the seeds.
Do not be afraid - all seeds will not freeze. And if you cover the seeds with too thick a layer of soil, then by spring this layer of earth will be compacted under the weight of snow, melt water - it will be difficult for the seeds to emerge.
Seeds planted before winter, no matter which vegetables or flowers, have a much lower germination rate than if you planted them in spring. Therefore, they must be sown denser. Double the number of seeds - you will not lose.
A reasonable question - why sow them in the winter, if some of them can still die in the winter? It’s very simple - those flowers that will spring in the spring after winter sowing will bloom very plentifully, I would even say wildly. They will not be afraid of sudden spring frosts. By the way, asters sown before winter are three times less likely to suffer from Fusarium wilt (the disease manifests itself at the stage of budding). Agree, you can take a chance! Moreover, in spring you will free up time for other work on the site - we always lack it.
So, get ready for planting flowers in the winter - you will not regret it!
You might be interested in the following information: