8 easy steps for growing gorgeous flowers from seed!

It’s the first day of 2025 and that means it’s the first day for me to share with you my 8 easy step for growing gorgeous flowers from seed! I am so excited to jump into the year by starting my first batch of seeds. Today I’ll be sowing some lovely Maverick Bullseye Geranium Seed in the color SALMON (despite me continually saying coral)! My regular viewers know how fond I am of zonal geraniums. This will be my first attempt at growing this variety and I have every confidence they’ll be as successful as those in the past. If you’re brand new to sowing seeds or an experienced gardener, I hope you’ll enjoy the tips and tricks I share as you begin thinking about what seeds you plan to start for the 2025 gardening season!
Helpful links:
Where I pre-order specific varieties of annuals that my local nurseries don’t often carry: https://provenwinnersdirect.com/
My favorite Aqua Pot Lite self-watering planters: https://provenwinnersdirect.com/products/aquapots-lite-legacy-stone-chicago-new?currency=USD&variant=41527872684171&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&stkn=aaf51ed56579&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7NO7BhDsARIsADg_hIbnvlIkheetZQx0aBs1ewYrL6D9JCVu2aRc5bFZxqJSQWcdjp8zLp4aAt56EALw_wcB
My favorite seed starting trays: https://www.gardeners.com/how-to/all-about-growease/8570.html?cq_med=&cq_net=x&cq_plac=&cq_plt=gp&cq_pos=&g_acctid=543-582-4261&g_adgroupid=&g_adid=&g_adtype=none&g_campaign=PMAX_Zombies&g_campaignid=21850149343&g_keyword=&g_keywordid=&g_network=x&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PMAX_Zombies&utm_term=&SC=GGLPLA&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7NO7BhDsARIsADg_hIa0xcfj3BTFoO9LHLLjNnQwtpRcU_sd7uB7zHWWlf72gMOR3ezyWioaApT-EALw_wcB
00:00 Introduction
01:56 Tips for starting geraniums from seed
09:21 Pre moisten seed starting mix
10:28 Fill seed starting trays with mix
12:35 Placing seeds in soil
14:27 Cover seeds with vermiculite
16:08 Mist the top of the trays
16:45 Cover trays with humidity dome
18:31 Heat mats and grow lights
18:57 Summary and farewell

[Music] hey everybody Welcome to Garden time with Belle and happy New Year to all of you it is the very first day of 2025 January the 1st and I am out here in my greenhouse because no time like the present to begin planting seeds for this next gardening season for those of you that are new to my channel I am a Missouri Master Gardener I am just a regular home Gardener and I happen to Garden in a zone six uh in the middle of Missouri and if you’re like me you have probably spent the last couple of months not doing a lot of gardening but hopefully doing a lot of dreaming and planning for what you want to accomplish in 2025 and that’s something that I’ve certainly been doing I’ve gotten my seed orders in I’ve pre-ordered annual plans from proven winterers direct um I’ve done a lot of planning and sketching out Gardens and things I want to you know uh change and tweak for this coming year so I cannot wait to get started so today is all about me showing you the simple way that I love to sew seeds for beautiful flowers herbs and vegetables well I had to turn the camera around because the sun is starting to come out and facing the other way oo it was right in my eyes and I am not g to complain about the sun because where I live I literally I think it’s been two weeks since we’ve had Sun it has been gray gloomy Frosty foggy dreary and I am here for the Sun so come on out son I don’t care if I have to squint um so anyhow so I flipped the camera around so I wouldn’t be squinting too much for you all um so you can see some plants behind me and you can make maybe guess what uh seeds I’m going to be sewing today one of my all-time favorite annuals to grow are zonal geraniums they are super easy to start from seed I have them in all varieties the other great thing about zonal geraniums is that in my beautiful heated Greenhouse I have them blooming all year long and there’s nothing better than me getting to come out here with a cup of hot coffee or tea and sit here and do my garden planning and be surrounded by all this beauty but today I’m going to start new seed for geraniums and I’m going to try a variety I’ve never grown before and I am using Laura from garden answer as my inspiration those of you that follow her Channel Garden answer have seen her grow Maverick Bullseye Coral beautiful geraniums for her Garden in fact she featured it this year um um and she planted them in the landscape in a round circular bed uh and I think she planted below them some purpley blue I think patunas and then these gorgeous Coral geraniums popped up above the Sea of purple and blue and it was gorgeous so I’m going to put on the screen a picture of this gorgeous Coral salmon uh that I’m going to start from seed today so you can see how beautiful it is so like many of you you’ve been hoping and planning and thinking about 2025 just like me and I actually have a long list of all the annuals that I’m going to grow either from seed or actually I like to pre-order some of my annuals from Proven Winners direct because my nurseries around here don’t always get the varieties I want and I actually plan out where all the annuals are going to go from my hanging baskets to my pots on the porches that I have to um where I’m going to put them in the landscape I have that all planned for 2025 and I know exactly what colors and viers are going where so let me tell you about these geraniums I’m growing today and how I’m planning to use them so first of all I am planning to grow those up and some of them I’m going to place in my big aquapots and you’ve seen those aquapots that I absolutely love they’re those huge self-watering containers and I’ll put a picture up on the screen of the aqua pots that are sitting here in front of the entrance to my greenhouse and what I had in them in 20124 I did a whole variety of purples and whites that was sort of the color scheme so I had gar in the center and then I surrounded them with The Proven Winners um mini Vista patunas in purple purple and white and white this year I’m G to put all the way around the pot my Coral geraniums that I’m starting today and in the center I’m going to plant one of The Proven Winners um oh gosh unplugged Blue Salvia and I’ll put that a picture of that blue salvia on the screen and I just feel like that beautiful blue salvia that’ll be that Thriller in the center surrounded by this soft pinky Coral geraniums I think that’s going to be a gorgeous combination so that’s where I’m planning to put some of these geraniums in pots and I have another big pot um on my back Terrace where uh the same I’m going to repeat the same um combination but also I’m going to put some in the landscape and I love to give flowers and vegetable plants that I start from seed as gifts I um last year in May I had a garden party where I invited loads of my sweet friends here and we did garden tours and then they all all got to pick things to take home from loads of tomato plants I had grown from seed and some other flowers so I’m hoping I’ll have enough of these beautiful geraniums to give them away as gifts so let’s get to it I want to share with you all my eight steps for Growing Seeds could not be simpler I use this process this eight-step process that I’m going to share with you today um whenever I start any seeds basically it’s the same process so we’re going to get to it and get these Maverick geranium started so before we jump into actually getting these seeds in seed cell trays uh I wanted to share with you it’s really important I know a lot of people wonder like when when should I start my seeds well first thing you want to do is you want to read the seed packet and the seed packet will tell you how soon to start your seeds before your average last frost and in my zone 6 Garden here in Missouri my average last frost is between like April the 14th and like April the 24th somewhere in there remember that’s just an average so we’ve had frost after the 24th of April and we’ve had uh our last frost before the 14th of April but that’s on average and so if we look at this Bullseye geranium uh seed it says right here to let’s see let’s take a look here that you want to grow them and then transplant them from seedlings into your garden in 14 to 16 weeks so that’s why here it is January 1 and I’m going to go ahead and sew these seeds because I want to transplant these out into my garden in probably uh the last week of April I would say and I’m also starting them a little bit earlier than I typically do because I want them to get some size um last year I grew some as you can see around me and a lot of these were outside last year in the garden or I took cuting and uh propagated them anyways they just weren’t H as big as I wanted them to be so I’m going to start a little early and I’ll just keep them protected uh in the greenhouse until all um all the frost uh signs have passed so read your seed packet um when is your last frost date well you need to just do a quick Google search last frost dat in my ZIP code and enter your zip code and pull that up and you can get that information right away so but for here last frost day for us is usually the end of April so that’s why I’m starting them so darn early all right let’s get to our seed starting so you want to use seed starting mix very important do not use potting soil don’t use top soil garden soil you want to purchase specific soil that is made for starting seedlings it is sterile it is super lightweight and fluffy and it’s super gentle on brand new roots that those little seeds are going to put out and so that’s step one so you want to get your seed starting mixed in a tray somewhere that you can mix it because you want to add water and uh this seed mix was already a little bit damp right out of the bag um it happens to be organic I like to use use um an or organic everything in my garden whether I’m growing things to eat or flowers doesn’t matter I just prefer that um but you can find a good seed starting mix at any of your basic nurseries so anyhow so you mix that water in and here’s the trick you take and try to make a ball like so and you want it to hold together but if you squeeze the ball you don’t want it to drip oh and that means it’s too wet so I’ve added a little bit too much water easy just like cooking if it’s too wet you just add more dry ingredients which is what I’m going to do I’m going to add another scoopful mix it in just like so okay could not be easier so now that I’ve moved the soil out of the way step two I need to fill my trays and I’m going to fill two 24 cell trays I am actually going to you’re going to see me in a minute when I put the seeds in here I’m going to put two seeds in each cell that will helpful hopefully give me a little extra in terms of germination so if one doesn’t germinate the other one hopefully will I have a 5050 chance uh so all I do is sprinkle that soil that I just mixed and pre moistened into the trays lightly fill and then if you want to you can Tamp down a little bit that way I’m really surprised this is this is epom uh asoma excuse me um seed starting mix and I’m seeing some Twigs which is unusual actually I don’t usually see that but anyways okay so there we go so that could not be easier they’re ready to receive the seeds so I’m going to move this one I’m going to grab another one up here I’m going to probably need some more the soil so let me fill this one just the same way I don’t know maybe I can get away with I think it might work think that might be just about right for two that hardly ever happens by the way that I measure correctly the first time let’s try this and again you know I’m not pressing down on the soil because it needs to be super light so once those seeds sprout and they start to send out Roots the Roots have really an easy time moving through that soil okay so that was step two easy filled two trays now I’m going to get my seeds and we’re going to put two seeds in each one of these cells and I’ll try to bring the camera in a little closer for that all right step three is to get your seeds in the seed trays and I’ve got my seeds here this I happen to find these uh online at Harris seeds uh gosh I usually go to swallow tail but they were all out of this variety this is I’m expecting to be quite a popular variety because you know when Laura from garden answer recommends something automatically those things get purchased just like I was wanting to do the same thing so here are my little seeds and as I said I’m going to put two in each cell and I like to put them uh caddy corner you know not right on top of each other is that to Y so that if they when they germinate they’re a little bit apart from each other other um not right in the corners but you know you get the idea so that’s what I’m going to do here I’ll probably speed up the video you don’t need to see me do the same thing over and over I’ll fill these two trays and then we’ll get on to the next step [Music] all right step four is to make sure you check your packet and see how deep the seed should go and in my experience geranium seed um doesn’t need to go very deep at all in fact what I’m going to probably do is just gently Pat them down and then I’m going to cover it with vermiculite so let’s get that step done you want to make sure your seeds are cont uh in good contact with the soil so this pushing them down a little bit um whoops where that one went is helpful some seeds uh you know an eighth of an inch which which is hardly anything some seeds you could just sew right on top which is sort of what I’m doing here U and Topping them with vermiculite will keep the seeds in place and give them just a little bit of cover uh and that should be fine okay all right so let’s cover them with vermiculite and I do this with almost all all my seeds I find it really helpful in keeping the moisture in and also keeping down any kind of mold or you know any kind of mildew issues so and a little goes a long way which is nice this bag will do probably all of my seed sewing for the whole season because and I do a lot of trays so there we go so that could not be easier so step four is done topping with vermiculite now that I’ve done that step five is misting them so I want to settle the seeds and settle this vermiculite so I’ve got my mister let me make dial this in here let’s check nice and Misty and so I’m just going to cover the top with this nice nice mist of water settle the vermiculite settle the seeds and give them a little bit of moisture right on the top okay so step six would be to cover them with humidity domes got to get them in their trays like so and so I happen to use um The Grow ease system uh Gardener Supply is where I get my trays and these are amazing heavy duty really well-made uh seed starting trays uh but gosh I mean there’s all kinds of seed starting trays out there I like the 24 and I also like the 12 um I’ve got some smaller ones so yeah so it’s very important when you’re starting your seedlings you put the humidity Dome on you want to keep that moisture locked in uh to get those seats to germinate and so that is gosh we’re almost done so I’ve got six of the eight steps we’ve got two more steps and what I have decided to do because we’re going to get down into the teens I think for Lowe’s uh in the next few days just even though I heat my Greenhouse just because it’s going to be bitterly cold and if were if the heaters were to fail it would probably wreck my seedlings I typic typically will do all the dirty workout here in my greenhouse and then I’m going to take these inside my house I have a grow light system set up in my basement and heating mats and so I’m going to take these in the house I’ll take you along for that and uh get them set up where they are going to grow on for I’ll probably keep in in there for at least another month uh so that I can keep a close eye on them [Music] well you got to see me do the last two steps in my e step process of how I’d like to start seeds so you saw me bring in my seed trays and the seventh step is to put them on a heat mat my heat mats are set to about 70 degrees and that’s going to be so important to speed up their germination so heat mats are a great thing they’re easy to find just do an Amazon search you can find all different varieties of seed mats different sizes online they’re not terribly expensive uh so they will stay on heat mats until the majority of of those seed Lanes uh germinate and get up and growing and then once they’re pretty well established I will be turning off the heat mat won’t be needed after that the last thing you saw me do was to get the grow light Set uh down low so my grow lights will be on my seedlings for about 16 hours a day so I put them on a timer which makes it no fuss for me um so my timer will turn the lights on about 6:00 a.m. turn the lights off about 10 p.m. so they’re getting 16 hours of bright grow light which is really important the other thing you saw me put the Dome on the top that keeps the humidity in there once they get established and the majority of those seedlings sprout in the trays then I’ll remove the humidity Dome won’t need that any longer so I appreciate you guys so much for being here today thanks for hanging out with me on this very first day of a new Garden season of 2025 as I got to start some new seeds for what I hope are going to be some beautiful Bullseye Maverick uh Coral geraniums that I can use in my garden and use as gifts for my friends if you enjoyed today’s video I’m going to please ask you to like And subscribe so I can continue to share some of my garden adventures with the rest of you I really appreciate that so much in support of my little Channel so until next time I wish you all happy gardening [Music]