Nurturing Sunflower Seedlings for a Flower Garden

It is so exciting to grow flowers from seeds! And, it is especially exciting when you are starting seeds inside, literally right under your nose. Nurturing sunflower seeds [into little sunflower seedlings] for a flower garden can be quite fulfilling and rather invigorating. I can well imagine how farmers feel tending their newly planted crops from seeds.

If you are following along with my flower garden progress, you have read about the first step; i.e., Planting a Flower Garden From Scratch and step two, Starting Sunflower Seeds for a Flower Garden. Hey, you can't go about planting a garden half-assed, you know?

I am working with the Burpee Eco-friendly Seed Starting 25 Pellet Greenhouse Kit. Let me tell you, I would recommend that product every time! If you want to start your flower seeds from scratch, get the Burpee Seed Starting Kit! They come in bigger sizes, but for us feminine ladies, 25 works great.

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 8, 2013

So, about one week into the daily nurturing, I wake up one morning to find a bunch of seedlings pushing up on that biodegradable germination sheet.

The less expensive seeds comprise the 2 left columns, whilst the more expensive seeds are in the 3 right columns.

Do you notice that the "cheaper" seeds are nearly 100% seedlings?

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 9, 2013

A few days later, I am seeing the more expensive seeds have germinated!

There was only one cell that hadn't yet sprouted a sunflower seedling.

I continued to water the cells daily, being careful not to over-water.

A little tip: Place the tip of your little finger into the side of the cell to feel if it is damp.

Watering these, I used a tablespoon and sprinkled water over the tops of the cells.

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 10, 2013

It was surely interesting is to see the difference in growth of the seedlings.

The nurturing conditions up to this point were controlled.

Once I started seeing the seedlings sort of bending over, I put the starting kit on the floor in my Florida Room near the sunlight.

I avoided direct sunlight so as not to fry the little seedlings.

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 11, 2013

The little sunflower seedlings were well on their way.

I was still seeing better growth from the $1.09 sunflower seeds.

The Jacksonville Florida weather was still too chilly to contemplate putting these seedlings in the ground.

It was still mid-March!

The seedlings were growing at a pretty solid rate that I knew I'd need another temporary flower pot.

Sunflower Seedlings in Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo taken March 11, 2013 by JaguarJulie

I hope you have enjoyed my step-by-step photos using the Burpee Eco-friendly Seed Starting 25 Pellet Greenhouse Kit. I feel like a mother nurturing her young child ... stand up straight now!

Sunflower Seedlings in a Rectangular Flower Pot
These are just about ready to be planted in the ground.
Photo taken March 14, 2013 by JaguarJulie

I found a rectangular flower pot at Lowe's which would work for transplanting the sunflower seedlings until I was ready to take them outside for planting in my flower garden. I separated each fiber cell, opening up the sides, and placed it in Miracle-Gro Potting Mix in two rows in the flower pot.

Now, it was only a matter of timing to move the growing sunflower seedlings outdoors into the flower garden. That would be the next step: Planting Sunflower Seedlings in the Ground.

Starting Sunflower Seeds for a Flower Garden

Now that I had prepared the area in my backyard for the flower garden, it was time to start the seeds! On March 2nd, I stopped by my neighborhood Target store to check out their garden department. I knew that I wanted to pick up some sunflower seeds, but I hadn't thought about a seed starting kit.

I was quite surprised to see a really nice selection of seed packets. There were so many different sunflower seed packets, that I found it rather challenging to settle on just one. So, I didn't. I opted to try 3 different packages of sunflower seeds.

Burpee Sunflower Seed Packets - Photo by JaguarJulie
Photo Taken: March 2, 2013

Left to Right: Del Sol Hybrid (Pollenless) Classic Cut Flower 5-7 feet - $1.89, Summer Evening Mix Warm Colors 6-7 feet - $1.09, and Summer Cutting Garden Mix for Vases and Blooms 5-7 feet - $1.69. Each of the seed packets are from the Fordhook Collection. Of course, they all require Full Sun.

By the way, I am really amazed at the variety of Burpee Sunflower Seeds on Amazon. I believe you will be personally challenged to settle on just one sunflower seed packet.

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 2, 2013

For me, finding the Burpee Seed Starting Kit was a real blessing! I was a complete novice with such a kit. The kit of 25 cells cost $6.99 at Target.

Since it was my first time going this route, I thought the size was perfect. You get a tray of fiber planting cells with the super-growing pellets and a biodegradable germination sheet.

There is also a watering tray, wooden plant labels and a package of organic fertilizer.

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 2, 2013

Reading the directions helped! It was really cool how the pellets expanded to fill the fiber cells once you added water.

As I had 3 packets of seeds to work with, I decided to plant, left to right, 2 columns of $1.09, 1 column of $1.69 and 2 columns of $1.89 sunflower seeds. One packet had smaller-sized seeds, so I planted 2 seeds in each cell. The other two packets had fairly large sunflower seeds, so those got planted one per cell.

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 2, 2013

Once I had planted the seeds, I placed the starter kit on a plastic placemat on my kitchen table.  I covered it with the biodegradable germination sheet. Next, all I had to do was check the cells each day to be sure they did not dry out and had plenty of water.

See the complete process with the seed starting kit.

By the way, I found a similar kit on Amazon, in case you want to try it: Burpee Eco-friendly Seed Starting 25 Pellet Greenhouse Kit.

Planting a flower garden, step 2 completed! Now, onto Nurturing Sunflower Seedlings for a Flower Garden.