Seedlings and blossom
Spring is so full of promise and excitement if you have a garden. I am very behind with sowings at work but I have been sowing for the garden here and I am planning on a forest of foxgloves next year. Foxgloves (digitalis) are biennials so, if sown this year, will bloom next year. There is no need to sow this early – you can sow in April through to June but I find that spring sowings are easier to handle and they will make large plants that will be really good next year. Some may survive another year but that is a bonus. Remember that foxglove seeds need light to germinate, so cover them with Perlite. Most seedlings should be transplanted when their seed leaves are expanded and before the true leaves emerge but foxglove seedlings are so small that I wait till they have a few true leaves to tackle the job.
I am growing quite a few perennials including hollyhocks (just a few spares left in the tray above) and some grasses. Above are the yellow seedlings of Millium effusum ‘Aureum’ – Bowles golden grass. These have now been transplanted too. It is nice to have lots of plants to work with and this is one of the nicest grasses, that usually self seeds a little, and is a wonderful mixer with other plants – I have plans to mix some with bluebells – a perfect combination.
The recent warmth has encouraged blossom on the fruit trees and although the apples are resolutely closed, the pears have started to open. This is the second year in the ground for them so I may let a few fruits develop if they set.
Pear ‘Clapp’s Favourite’
Pear ‘Concorde’
Pear ‘Beth’
The Biking Gardener 
Seed are SO tedious in such quantities.One must really enjoy what is being grown to put that sort of effort into it. At least your pictures do not show vast areas of flats of seedlings that need to be separated out. That second picture is more my speed, with individuals already in separate cells.
Well I need a lot of plants for the garden and plants such as foxgloves need planting in quantity so growing from seed is the only practical way. I am not that keen on tiny seedlings but it is not so bad if you can do a few hundred each day 🙂
A few hundred does not sound so impossible. For cuttings, a hundred start out in a square flat, so a few hundred would be only a few flats. If I liked something enough, I would do it.
That’s a lot of seedlings to transplant!!
Where do you keep all these trays? Windowsill or greenhouse?
In the polytunnel for now – the greenhouse has not been added yet – some time soon I hope