Even though our business is all about selling plants, I love it when our customers grow their own plants from seeds. A plant will cost three dollars and up, while seeds average ten cents each. Of course not everything is easy from seed, and not everyone has the indoor space or a greenhouse to grow their own plants from seed, but if you do have a spot to devote to it, try it! You’ll like it.
Annuals are the easiest plants from seed. Many of them respond well to direct sowing in the garden. Others, like peppers and tomatoes, or petunias, benefit from starting a few weeks before you plant them in the garden. I ran into a customer the other day and she asked me if it is too early to start basil inside. The short answer is yes. Basil needs a lot of heat to do well. It languishes in cool temperature. It needs a lot of light. Start basil about four to six weeks before your last frost in the spring, or even better, direct sow. If you haven’t had good luck with seeds, try this: When the temperature is warm enough, buy a few basil plants, put them in a bed, or row, and sow basil seed in between. The plants will remind you to water–seeds need to stay moist to germinate. I think a lot of people fail with seeds because they forget to water them. You can harvest basil from the plants you bought first, and then as summer goes on, you can harvest basil from the ones you grew from seed. It will be your best basil year ever.
Some native plants are not too difficult from seed. Most penstemon need to be cold stratified before they will germinate, but after that they are easy. Here’s Penstemon glaber, in the seed flat, ready to transplant.
I’m happy to have Chilopsis linearis (Desert Willow) germinating. This is from seed from Alplains, a Colorado seed company that has an extensive list of natives. This particular seed comes from the hardiest strain of chilopsis. It’s a great plant to attract hummingbirds. 
Seeds are germinating, spring is in the air!
