Sowing Sweet Peas and Wondrous Cold Hardy Annuals

January is also the time for sorting seeds and planning the garden. The beautiful spring flowers that accompany roses and peonies require the earliest of sowing so they are ready when it’s their time to shine. The most delicate in appearance and yet tough, preferring winter temps to grow ever so slowly sending down strong roots preparing for springs arrival where they will burst forth and grace us with their beauty. These are the cold hardy annuals. They fill in gaps and offer whimsical, old fashioned charm whilst providing nectar for eager pollinators in spring and early summer.

Sweet peas clambering up a trellis, Ammi delicate and airy, dancing in the breeze tucked in at the back of the border, Larkspur, Cornflower, Nigella to name a few of my favorites. Those that weren’t sown in early August, will be started now. Sweet Peas are soaking for sowing tomorrow. They will stay warm indoors until they emerge and then will spend the winter outside in a protected sunny location. The larkspur will have a frantic month being carried outside at night in freezing temps and back inside during the day. Warm, cold, warm, cold until… 30 days later they will be placed on a propagation mat where they will (I say this with hope) pop up after just a few days.

So, as I hibernate with all of the cozy comforts… I plan for spring. The candle is lit, the coffee hot. My view out the window is of a frozen landscape. As someone who lives in sync with the seasons I know for certain that there, just under the surface lies a million little miracles waiting patiently for the sun to rise higher in the sky and the soil to warm. It is then, when one by one, season by season, they offer their beauty to all.

Wishing you the best of everything.

x Susan