• Growing flowers will not only add colour and beauty to your garden, but will have other, more subtle benefits. Flowers are always beautiful but keep in mind that so far, there are few, if any, organic cut flowers being offered and you may unknowingly be introducing chemical contamination to your home. So, always consider growing your own!
• Watch for this symbol: blossoms and petals from these plants can add extra colour, flavour and nutrition to meals.
• Flowers also provide a food source for honey bees. Bees do more than just make honey, about a third of our diet comes from insect-pollinated plants and honeybees are responsible for more than 80 per cent of the pollination. So without the bee, natural pollination would be greatly limited, our food production and supply in crisis. You can help by providing bee forage in your garden. Try to have flowers blooming all year round to provide nectar and pollen.
• Flowers help to reduce pests by encouraging biodiversity. Growing flowers in your garden can provide a valuable nectar source for the 'good bugs'.
• Check out Good Bug Mix for a colourful re-seeding annual and perennial flower mix that blooms much of the year, providing nectar, pollen and habitat for beneficial insects.
• Also worth a look is Give Bees A Chance seed mix full of beautiful herbs and flowers to provided much needed nectar and pollen for honey bees and native bees.
  means this plant is excellent for providing a food source for bees and beneficial insects.
• You can find additional information on growing bee forage here.

Cooking With Edible Flowers Booklet and Seed Pack UT Save $4.85
Includes an informative booklet and three packets of seeds: grow pretty, tasty floral additions to your table.

• One copy of the Cooking With Edible Flowers booklet

Edible Flower seeds:

• Calendula 'Pacific Beauty' – sprinkle the orange, yellow and cream-coloured petals through salads
• Viola 'Johnny Jump Up' - decorative, tasty and nutritious; high in vitamin C, use the flowers and young leaves in salads
• Nasturtium 'Jewel Mix Double' – use the orange, yellow and red blossoms as sensational garnishes or to spark up a salad

BC163Save $4.85

Growing Sunflowers
Helianthus annuus
Sunflowers add joy to a Summer garden, attract colourful king parrots and the flower petals are edible and brighten up a salad. The tall plants provide support for climbing beans and are useful as a Summer windbreak. Sunflowers are a must for a child's garden, the sheer size of the plants and the way the flowers follow the sun are intriguing for kids. It is a warm season, frost tender annual, usually 2 - 3 m tall. The seeds germinate best at 20 - 25°C; sow Spring and Summer most areas. The seeds take 10 - 14 days to germinate but are vulnerable to being eaten by birds and rodents. Protect the seed with an upturned pot until the seed has germinated. Sow seed 6 - 10 mm deep in full sun, direct into a garden bed is best. Soil required is fertile, well-drained; with a preferred pH 5.5 - 7.5. Plants do better with consistent moisture. Space rows 60 cm apart with 50 - 60 cm between plants. Protect seedlings from snails, slugs and grasshoppers.

Growing Sweet Alice
Lobularia maritima
syn. Alyssum
Sweet Alice is a cottage garden favourite that is hardy and easy to grow from seed. It is a low growing, long flowering annual. The fragrant tiny clusters of flowers are highly attractive to a range of beneficial insects including bees, lady beetles, predatory bugs and braconid wasps. In trials of insectary plants in California, sweet alyssum was found to be the best at attracting 'good bugs'. This makes it ideal to use in the vege garden along pathways or in rows between crops. It is frost resistant but drought tender. Suitable for temperate, subtropical and tropical areas. Sow early Spring and again in Autumn in temperate areas. Sow all year in subtropical areas; avoid very hot periods or frost. In tropical areas sow during the dry season. The best germination soil temperature is 20°C. Germination will take 7 - 14 days. Sow the seed 2 - 5 mm deep, cover with fine sand. Seed can be sown into seedling trays for later transplanting or direct into a garden bed. Sow the seed thinly, the germination rate is high; it also self-sows in good conditions. Space the plants 10 cm apart. It is tolerant of a wide range of soils and will grow from full sun to light shade. Plants do better with consistent moisture. Protect seedlings from snails and slugs.

Growing Sweetpeas
Lathyrus odoratus
Sweetpeas are a beautiful, annual, fragrant flower for the cooler times of the year. It is suitable for temperate and subtropical areas. There are both dwarf and climbing types. Usually the climbing types are less prone to mildew and flower over a longer period. Generally if it is the right time to plant peas then same goes for sweetpeas. Sow seed in early Spring in cool temperate areas. In warm temperate and subtropical areas sow Autumn to early Winter. The best germination soil temperature is between 10 - 21°C. Germination will take 6 - 14 days. Seed should be soaked in water 12 - 24 hours before sowing. Sow the seed 2 - 2.5 cm deep direct into a garden bed. Space seeds 8 cm apart along the row. Very lightly mulch seed rows to prevent soil crusting. Choose a position in full sun, sheltered from strong winds. The soil should be rich, fertile, well drained, with a pH of 6.5 - 7. Lime it if necessary several weeks before sowing. Improve the soil before planting by adding compost. Once in flower remove the spent flowers and young pods to prolong flowering. Pick early in the morning to use as a delightful cut flower.