What are they?
Biennials are flowers that you plant one year to flower the next and perennials are plants that may take a year to get established and then go on flowering year after year. July is a good time to sow both of these types of flowers.
Examples of biennial flowers are Stocks, Canterbury Bells, Sweet William, Fox Gloves, Forget-me-nots; examples of perennials are Wallflowers and Lavender.
Gardening requires and teaches patience as it is very difficult to get a quick fix or instant gratification in the garden and this is nowhere more clearly seen as you come to understand perennials and biennials.
Buy or grow your own?
These are all plants that need to be planted as seeds for the summer the following year - gardeners have to plan ahead if they want to grow their own. But if you buy year old plants from your garden center store then you are paying for the work of growing the plants for a year before they are sold. You will most likely buy them at the stage just before they are ready to flower.
Seed bed
You need a seed bed to plant the seeds in a good open site, not under overhanging trees. The soil should be dug over carefully and raked fine so that it forms a smooth and soft bed. At this time of year the soil can be very dry - if this is the case it is a good idea to water the ground the night before you are going to plant the seeds. Watering heavily after seeds have been sown on dry dusty soil can wash the seeds away with the soil. It is not a good idea to add fertiliser to the soil as that could grow the plants too quickly. We want strong sturdy plants that are grown slowly and are in good condition to overwinter.
Planting
A shallow furrow is made in the soil and the seeds are spaced out - not too close together. When they are big enough you will want to transplant them to have enough space where they can grow into small bushy plants ready to be planted out into the flower beds in the fall.
We are aiming to have these plants ready to be planted out into the borders after the summer flowers are over and before the winter comes, perhaps in October. If you live in a very cold area you will know what will survive outside in the winter and what needs protection with fleece or glass. (It is difficult writing about gardening for publication to the whole world as my west European experience will be very different to the climate in the north of Canada or in Australia - I hope readers will be able to interpret what I say for their local situation.)
In this way the plants will overwinter and be ready to flower with and after the spring bulbs in the following year. These are great traditional flowers fro the garden and once you understand what perennial and biennial mean then you can see that they are not difficult to grow.
