I’m always elated (relieved?) when I reach the halfway point of seed-starting. The process gets much easier because the seeds I’m sowing get bigger, and I don’t need to be so cautious.
For example, this is a nicotiana (flowering tobacco) plant:
These are the seeds from a nicotiana plant:
If I drop the seeds on the table or on the floor or in my lap which happens more than I care to admit, it’s nearly impossible to find them again unless they miraculously fall together in a pile. To sow them, I use a tiny seed spoon to pick up each seed individually and deposit it into the sowing medium. It’s very tedious. Some companies coat the seeds so you can see them better—many petunia seeds are coated. I loooove coated seeds.
The tiny seeds usually take the longest to germinate, so I start most of those flowers 9-12 weeks before my frost date. That includes begonias, nicotianas, petunias, ageratums, rudbeckias, celosias and some salvias.
When I reach the halfway point, the seeds are much easier to handle. Here are some dahlia seeds I started last week. I could actually pick them up with my fingers!
From here on out I’ll be sowing bigger seeds for plants like calendulas, cosmos, marigolds and tons of tons of zinnias.
Because it’s been stubbornly chilly outside lately, it’s hard to believe that I’ll be digging holes in my flowerbeds for all these plants in just two months!