Sowing Seeds
OSGF
Ever wondered how our gardening team spends the winter months? It’s a lot of plant production! Bunny Mellon took pride in the fact that her gardeners started many of the plants in the formal garden from seeds and cuttings, and it’s a tradition we carry on at the foundation today. During the winter, Oak Spring’s production greenhouse is teeming with plants at various stages of life that will be moved into the Formal Greenhouse or Walled Garden when they are ready.
“Gardening takes patience, a reasonable amount of care - a stout heart against disappointment.”
In the video below, assistant gardener Allissa Montgomery demonstrates how to sow delphinium seeds and gives us a short tour of the plants growing in the production greenhouse.
Before they put seeds to soil, however, our gardening team consults their notes from the previous year and checks a planting schedule that includes information such as frost dates and the area of the garden where the flowers will go. Download the template below if you’d like to adapt their schedule for your own garden.
Like any good production greenhouse, Oak Spring’s is also full of plenty of horticulture reference books. Scroll down to find some of our team’s favorite seed- starting texts. Happy gardening!
Interested in exploring the garden this spring? Registration is currently open for our tours on April 18th and 19th. Learn more at our Visiting page.