I have nearly a thousand flower seedlings growing already. I can’t remember a year when I’ve had such a high germination rate. I’ve only had to reseed a couple of cultivars, and even they came to life quickly on the second try.
Seedlings, like the baby petunia pictured below, rely their first set of leaves (cotyledons) to survive. The cotyledons contain stored food reserves from the seed. The next set of leaves that develop are considered true leaves. Once they appear I can safely begin fertilizing my tiny plants.
As in other years, I cannot resist sharing a photo of one of my coleus seedlings. The leaves start showing color immediately, and I find them so diminutively charming:
This year I’m trying some of the Versa cultivars. It made me a bit nervous because the seeds are so expensive (about 25 cents each), but thankfully I was blessed with 100% germination. Keeping the earwigs away from them once they are in the garden will be an entirely different challenge.