kaali_maali,

What kind of annuals did you plant? Some annuals are naturally rather slow from seed and it may be that the Garden Center plants were started significantly earlier than April 15th.

ZM

You may have the same seed as garden centers, but they have better growing conditions. In a greenhouse you can give plants the correct amount of heat and light that they require, so they grow faster than plants started in the house and then moved outside, where the temperature isn't constant.

Case in point--
Before I got my greenghouse I started my tomatoes in the house and then moved them out to a cold frame. I always allowed around 8 to 10 weeks from seeding to planting out. The first year I planted in the greenhouse, I thought the might be quicker so I allowed 8 weeks. My plants were blooming when I set them out. Now I only allow 6 weeks.

Your garden centers receive truckloads of plants directly from the growers. These growers know how to produce bedding plants under optimal conditions. We simply cannot reproduce those conditions at home.

You might be assuming that TIME is the most important contributing factor, when it really isn't. Sunlight, humidity, temperature (of soil and air), well-drained medium, fertigation practices, etc. are all balanced carefully so that those trucks can deliver gorgeous plants to your garden center.

You can do a pretty good job at approximating ideal conditions at home, but it takes some information gathering.

You don't give us your zone, but if you were in my zone (6) and you started your plants in mid-April and put it out the end of May, it sounds like you did everything right and given just a few weeks, your plants may outpace anything you would buy already blooming in a garden center.

Most people who start seeds at home, tend to start them too early, some thinking that their plants need to look like a retailer's ....... sized up and ready to fly........as soon as they are stocked in stores. Most of the stores in my area move the planting season up a few days every year, until it's at a point now, they're on the shelves before they should ever be planted. And the reason they're blooming already, is that customers want it that way whether it's the best thing for the plant's culture or not. I can rarely sell a plant not yet blooming, and am forced to bring it in to bloom to move it, and sometimes that means I need to keep sizing the plant up to a larger container and they'd actually transplant better when they're younger. It's also the reason some growers use growth controlling chemicals. To keep plants small, and still in a cell pack. These aren't necessarily optimum conditions for the plant, but they sure are for the profit margin.

I am a grower and have been in the business 22 years now. I sometimes have to winter-grow plants who do not do well in the short-day light conditions, or the cooler temperatures because people can't wait for them when they'd be more likely to grow under natural conditions. My early season gomphrena/zinnia/catharanthus crops are examples. When I get around to a second run of them, they catch up with the first quickly because they like heat/sun.

So, relax and get comfortable with your seed starting and enjoy it. It's not a race. ;-)

"...they'd actually transplant better when they're younger."

This is an important point - the stuff that's already blooming in paks and small pots may be rootbound and suffer a setback when planted out. And in some cases annuals that have been pushed to bloom too early don't perform as well as homegrown plants.

If you've got to have large flowering annuals in the garden immediately when the season starts, you can pay for the nursery stuff and mostly get good results. Or you can save dough, have access to a lot more variety and maybe lose out on a few weeks of flowers by starting seed indoors (or direct sowing outdoors in some cases). Your call.

Thanks eric for giving that statement a validation. I have seen this industry evolving so much since I entered it. I took a hiatus from it for twelve years after leaving school and changing vocations, before coming back to it and working it for over 22 years now. I have seen a lot of changes, some of which are good and some I don't like at all.

Most floriculture crops are mass-produced now. Bench space is an overhead expense, and 'turning the bench over' as often as you can in one season means you produce crops more quickly and therefore more of them. "Pushing" a crop has become the norm. You find the correct ratio of nutrients, heat and supplemental light, and chemicals and force them as hard as you dare. To me, this is sort of like an athlete on steroids. Then you take these lush beauties and subject them to the real world outside in gardens.

With the doubling of fuel costs, some growers are rethinking this practice and returning to the old way of growing annuals. This not only means lowering the stats, but a longer production time, and lower stats usually mean lower fertiliser ratios and less irrigation. I have built a pretty steady following of customers because they finally notice my plants have excellent garden performance. Yes, I took an initial hit for not pushing them but I'm comfortable with that. I found a plug producer who also refuses to use growth regulators. This means we have to schedule very tightly to keep the plants in bounds and out the door when they are optimum. I am thrilled to see gardeners returning to seed starting, especially those varieties who actually do best when planted as seeds in situ.

I am phasing out of the nursery end of my business now as I am in semi-retirement. One factor in this decision is that perennials once sold green as a matter of course are now expected to be sold blooming, in or out of season. I draw the line at forcing perennials to bloom out of season just to sell it.

Thank you so much for replying to my queries. I am a first time gardener and I am at zone 5.
I thought I did right selecting the timings but...
I found out I transplanted in the mid afternoon on the hottest day and my plants suffered shock. some turned pale,some shed their leaves and some produced tiny flowers when they were little.
I also found my soil must not be a great medium as I gave some seeds to my nanny after I have transplanted my seedlings in the garden and now her seedlings are healthier and bigger than mine. Although I put lots of cow manure in the soil before I transplanted I think I should have rather used compost.
Yes, I bought some already bloomed flowers from the nursery to see some flowers in my garden, I was feeling low when I did not see any... no matter how they do it... its feels good to see flowers blooming! I also found the nursery bought plants do not do good in the long run... but I have my seedlings they will do good soon. I also bought vinca plant as they do not suffer so bad and are easy to handle and some daylilies and different color lilies (hardy ones) so its an investment for next year! I also bought some begonas.
Next year I will work more on soil that one is most important factor other conditions remaining same.
Thanks again for your precious time and information.

You will want to ease your precious little green babies into the sun situation by hardening them off, if you've started them inside. That will help with the transplant shock a lot. I won't explain it, but there should be a lot of advice on it here if you plug that in and do a search on it. Also, since you are brave enough to try your hand at seed starting, and yet you say you are a novice you should know that a good many seeds do well if started in late spring, right in your garden beds. I'm thinking things like zinnia, nasturtium, morning glory, marigold, sunflowers. Those with large seeds first until you get the hang of it. I just direct sowed a bed of nasturtium seed a few days ago, right into a sunny bed and they're starting to peek their little heads up out of the soil now!

Yes, I also did not do the hardening....
You mean to say I could directly sow marigold, zinnia, naturtium, sunflower etcs in April 15th in zone 5 but the instructions in each seeds packet to do after the last frost for outside...
My april seedlings although well rooted now are not growing... So I bought seeds and have directly sowed them too. As I also say, my nanny's garden looks so so good with the seeds I gave it to her... while my plants are not....I have put miracle grow fertilizer and cow manure....
Next year, very early I will start working on soil...
I have bought compost bin and hope to have enough compost for the whole entire garden...
I know I was kinda brave to start from seeds for the first year... I made many mistakes... killed many plants... did not save some seeds in case something undesired happens...
but learned many lessons in the first year itself...
I am longing for another year to come, where I will do better...

Ok now you have planted them... when will your plants bloom?

You mean to say I could directly sow marigold, zinnia, naturtium, sunflower etcs in April 15th in zone 5 but the instructions in each seeds packet to do after the last frost for outside...

No, I mean to say wait until the weather is right and then directly sow those type of annuals. If the plants you wish to grow are heat lovers, even if there are no more frosts, cold and rainy springs will make them sit there at best, or rot and get diseased at worst.

I just sowed several packets of nasturtium a week ago. They're already up with the cotyledons expanded and about to start forming leaves. In a couple of weeks, you won't be able to tell the difference between them and the other flowers I planted off the greenhouse bench.

You mean to say I could directly sow marigold, zinnia, naturtium, sunflower etcs in April 15th in zone 5 but the instructions in each seeds packet to do after the last frost for outside...

The 'direct' (sowing) answer to the question is yeah, after last frost, but if you venture over to the Winter sowing forum here at GW, you'll see that absolutely you can start them in April...OUTSIDE.

The marigold which planted indoor in April 15 and transplanted outside after last frost date, was of petite variety, 60 of them blooming, so no matter what I do (pinching, fertilizing, watering) would not grow more than 6 inches! I kept searching for marigold care which looked healthy and flowering just stunted in height. What a nut I am!

Calliope,
When are expecting the nasturtium to bloom. I have also sowed some directly outside few weeks ago, I see the leaves too...

Nothing everything can be winter sown. Some seeds cannot tolerate freezing, or even a light frost. You need to consider the country of origin when you think of whether you can winter sow something in your particular area.

If it is a native plant to your area, or introduced but grows in the wild or self seeds from one year to the next, you can winter sow it. I very seldom see an impatien, zinnia, marigold or annual sunflower come back the next year from a planting site. To expect to sow them in fall and have them bloom in spring in a zone five situation is asking too much. Some plants grown as bedding plants for their bloom are actually tropical or sub-tropical. Dormancy in cold months is an evolutionary modification for plants who have evolved in temperate zones for millenia. It's absent in many bedding plants.

When will a plant bloom if it's direct sown? It just depends on a lot of factors, and I wish I could tell you, but I can't.

kaali_maali, you nasturtium will take about 1.5 months after germination before they bloom.

Not harding off plants -- including those bought from nurseries that have the plants in a greenhouse and not outside -- is common mistake. People just either don't realize or forget how important that can be (or in my case when I'm upstate planting for my folks, I don't have time to harden them off properly). Best analogy I've been able to give makes the most sense -- at least to those who live in the north and are caucasian: "Hardening plants off is like a person's skin getting used to the sun. If you've been indoors all winter and, once warm temps have arrived, you suddenly spend a day out in the sun unprotected, you're going to get one truly horrible sunburn (possibly even sunstroke/sunsick). If you know you will be spending a lot of time outdoors and refuse to wear sunscreen, then you need to slowly acclimate your skin to sun exposure --ie slowly develop a tan." Those folks blessed with lots of melanin in their skin, often don't have to worry about such things.