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.