Flower Seeds Near Me – How to choose flower seeds for your garden
Check out our ‘flower seeds near me’ tool below to find a selection of stores selling great seeds in your area to help get you back outdoors, lapping up the sunshine, and creating a beautiful and inspiring garden for everyone to look at in the process.
Why grow your own flowers?
The truth is, flowers make us feel good. They make us feel better when we’re feeling low, they are the go-to gift in times of need, and they brighten up any space that they come to grace with color and scent. However, with the production of flowers now a big business built around flowers chosen for their shelf-life, it’s easy to forget that the flowers we buy are sent from far-flung fields to our shores, clocking up huge air miles, contributing to water shortages, and are being grown using horrible chemicals.
By choosing to grow your own flowers you can still enjoy their numerous benefits flowers bring without contributing to a dire global environmental situation and actually be a part of the solution by bringing down your carbon footprint and creating a vital habitat for our insects and bees. Growing your own flowers also means you’ll have a whole world of new flowers to choose from as they won’t have to sit in transit for weeks to make it into your arrangements.
How to prepare the ground for flower seeds
Whether you are growing seeds directly in your garden floor or in raised beds, it’s a good idea to give them a good forking over before adding a layer of topsoil mixed with compost. Pull out any pesky weeds you spot in the area as you are forking it over and make sure to give it a good layer of compost. Acidic soil will need some help from seaweed and a sprinkling of lime mix if you want to grow flowers from the brassica family.
What flower types should I choose?
If you want to have flowers from spring through to the mid to late autumn, then it’s a good idea to plant a mix of hardy annuals (such as bachelor’s buttons, spider flower, Shirley poppies, snapdragons, etc.) as well as biennial (such as Cynoglossum Amabile, Nigella Damascene, Lunaria annua var. Digitalis purpurea f. albiflora, etc.) plants.
For those looking to brighten up their garden with flowers but who don’t have an abundance of time to look after them, then it’s a good idea to go for some classics that grow easily from seed. A real favorite that surprisingly fits this bill is the sunflower and some strains can even grow up to 14 feet tall which would certainly catch the neighbors’ eye! Other easy to grow flowers include: sweet peas; Aquilegia; Nasturtiums, and; Escholzia, otherwise known as the Californian Poppy!
You might also want to consider is the specific seed variety, with 3 of the most common being: open-pollinated, hybrid, and heirloom seed strains.
#1 Open-pollinated
– This refers to pollination which occurs by insects, bird, wind, human or other natural results. These strains are more genetically diverse meaning the potential for more variation within plant populations but individual seeds will remain true to their type if not exposed to pollen from different strains.
#2 Hybridization
– Although this can occur naturally, this method of pollination is usually carried out by humans crossing two species or strains in a controlled manner. Seeds made in this way will usually be labeled F1 and have been deliberately created to breed a desirable trait. These seeds grow better than the seeds used to make them, but cannot be saved for use in following years.
#3 Heirloom
– This variety is harder to define. However, seed strains of this type must be open-pollinated and are generally seeds which are possible to regrow and pass on their traits from generation to generation. Typically they will be plants that have been around since before at least 1951. The best strains will have their generational history documented and have been grown within a family or community of plants with similar generational heritage.
How to choose flower seeds for your garden
With so many flowers to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to start. Fortunately, as the price is not too high for seed, you can pretty much just suck and see which you like by growing a variety and seeing which ones work best in your garden. However, to give you a helping hand getting started, here are 8 flower seeds we love that are easy to grow and will provide you with a range of colorful flowers for a good chunk of the year that will keep those blues away.
#1 Best Seeds for Sunflowers: Sunflower Crazy Mixture 15+ Varieties 1,000+ Seeds
These hybrid seeds are incredible value and come packed with an impressive mix of 10-15 different variants of sunflower that will give your garden a warm sunny glow and be a hit with kids and other passers-by. Variants include the lesser known Velvet queen to the more recognizable autumn beauty and range from a tiny but manageable 1 foot tall to a whopping 7 feet high. These seeds are non-GMO, can be open pollinated, and the resulting plant’s seeds can be replanted for at least one year.
#Sunflower_Seeds #Variety_Pack #Hybrid_Seeds #Open_Pollination #Garden_Flowers
#2 Best Bachelor Button Seeds: Sow Right Seeds – Flower Seed Garden Collection
This great value variety pack includes some easy to grow Bachelor’s Button seeds as well as a number of other bright and colorful flowers such as Cosmos, Marigolds, and Zinnias. Each variety has its own color seed packet with full planting instructions so you don’t have to plant them to find out which seed is which! All the flowers in this set are highly attractive to butterflies so you’ll be adding more than a dash of color to your garden with these great non-GMO heirloom seeds.
#Bachelors_Buttons #Variety_Pack #Butterflies #Open_Pollination #Non_GMO
#3 Best Wildflower Seeds for Your Garden: Chinese Forget Me Not Wildflower Seeds
These beautiful flowers which flower over a longer period than the more well-known forget-me-not, with a more intense blues color, and in greater abundance. This wildflower happily self-seeds and gets the best blooms when given a sunny spot with a little shade and spent flowers are trimmed off occasionally. These plants will often last several seasons just by leaving them to their own devices and come with a guarantee of germination making them a great choice for beginners and those looking to attract butterflies or brighten up the house with some cuttings.
#Chinese_Forget_Me_Not #Wildflowers #Butterflies #Open_Pollination #Non_GMO
#4 Best Californian Poppy Seeds: Mission Bells California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)
These great open-pollinated Californian poppy seeds come in a huge pack and can be grown as a perennial if carefully looked after. However, if you are looking for light touch seeds and you are happy with annual flowering, then these are great seeds for a hands-off approach too. This particular batch will produce poppies ranging in colors from the classical bright orange to the romantic pink and the dazzling yellow. At 6-12 inches tall these are also a great choice for those looking to grow a nice patch of cutting flowers to bring the sunshine indoors.
#Californian_Poppy #Californian_Poppy_Seeds #Non_GMO #Cutting_Flowers #Open_Pollination
#5 Best Organic Nasturtium Seeds: Seed Needs Bulk Package of 350 Seeds
If you’re looking for a garden flower that can survive a few frosts, to keep the garden looking that little bit more colorful as the dreary winter months set in, then you’ll love these surprisingly strong nasturtium seeds. These seeds will also last two flowering cycles if collected and produce a vibrant mix of colors. They are also non-GMO and organic. With high germination success, these seeds work well in most soils and even with limited gardening experience, you’ll likely see great results.
#Nasturtiums #Nasturtium_Seeds #Non_GMO #Garden_Flowers #Organic
#6 Best Nigella Damascena Seeds: Love in a Mist Flower Seeds – 2,200 Flower Seeds
These delicate flowers are a good old-fashioned annual flower that look beautiful in a cottage garden and flower from spring through to summer. This blue and white batch is a relative of the buttercup and can be started indoors and out and will look great in hanging baskets, planters or in plant-beds. They can be used as cut flowers or have also traditionally been used in both food and medicine so why not look up some recipes and tinctures and throw them in! They like sunny spots, but can cope with a bit of shade and are generally an easy grow for beginners.
#LoveInAMist_Seeds #Nigella_Damascena #Wild_Flowers #Flowers #Open_Pollination
#7 Best Sweet Pea Seeds: 50 Knee High Mix Sweet Pea Wildflower Seeds
When most people here sweet pea it usually makes them think of a sickly sweet nickname or a delicious vegetable, but sweet peas are also great wildflowers of vibrant pinks, purples, and reds that are great as cuttings. The sweet pea seeds are large and easy to handle and germinate easily resulting in blooms with a gorgeously sweet scent. Amazingly these seeds grow to anywhere between 5 and 6 feet tall. They will certainly be eye-catching in your garden and are great for bees and other insects that our planet will thank you for providing a home for.
#Sweet_Pea_Seeds #Wildflowers #GMO_Free #Native_Seeds #Long_Lasting_Seeds
#8 Best Foxglove Seeds for Beginners: Gloxiniaeflora Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
One of the most astonishing flowers is surely the bell-shaped foxgloves that can grow to huge heights in a variety of stunning colors. These seeds can be started indoors or outside and transplanted into the garden or into a favorite plant pot. Seedlings will emerge around 14-21 days after planting and should be given plenty of sunshine when they emerge but kept nice and moist. These are great in the late spring and are a wonderful centerpiece or component in any flower arrangement.
#Foxgloves #Foxglove_Seeds #Biennial #Non_GMO #Open_Pollination
Conclusion
So there you have it, with just a few bucks you can turn a barren wasteland into a flourishing flower garden with all the colors of the rainbow flowing through it. The flower seeds we’ve suggested above are all suitable for beginners so why not get down to your nearest store to get the gardening tools in and get digging!