As soon as you've sown your seeds, you'll be checking to see if they've grown. Some seeds can germinate in just a few days. This is especially true for the big seeds you've helped to absorb water by soaking them before you sowed them. Annuals usually grow fast, too, because they have to get all their growing done in just one year. Sometimes, you need to be more patient. Seeds of some perennials take months to germinate. Some seeds don't germinate at all, even for the experts, so don't think you've done something wrong if yours don't. Just try again.

As well as knowing when you can expect to see your seeds coming through the ground, you might also like to know what they look like when they're small. Weeds often grow faster than the plants you want, and they often look stronger, too, so you might keep the weeds and pull up the seedlings if you aren't sure which are which.

Here are pictures of the seedlings of some of the plants you might be growing:

African Daisy	African Marigold	Annual Chrysanthemum	Annual Phlox	Aubrieta
Baby's Breath	Baby Blue Eyes	Bellflower	Bird's Eyes	Bloody Cranesbill
Busy Lizzie	California Poppy	Candytuft	Columbine	Corncockle
Cornflower	Cosmos	Creeping Baby's Breath	Dame's Violet	Field Poppy
Floss Flower	Flowering Tobacco	Forget-me-Not	Foxglove	French Marigold
Gold Dust	Heliophila	Hollyhock	Honeywort	Indian Shot
Jacob's Ladder	Lobelia	Love-in-a-Mist	Lupin	Marigold
Meadow Cranesbill	Mesembryanthemum	Musk Mallow	Nasturtium	Nemesia
Nolana	Opium Poppy	Palm Springs Daisy	Pansy	Petunia
Poached Egg Plant	Purple Coneflower	Rose Moss	Shasta Daisy	Shoo Fly Plant
Snapdragon	Stork's Bill	Sunflower	Swan River Daisy	Sweet Alyssum
Sweet Pea	Sweet William	Thrift	Virginian Stock	Yellow Chamomile

When your plants have finished flowering, you can look forward to collecting the seeds. Look at the Seed Saving page to find out how to collect and save your seeds.

Click the blue arrow to go back to the previous page. Click the green arrow to go to the Seed Saving section.