Transplanting seedlings

Gardening is all new to me, and everything has been such a learning curve! None more so than when I first tried transplanting some seedlings. It was a pretty scary moment and I admit I was holding my breath the whole time! If you're attempting to grow flowers from seed for the first time like me, and you're ready to transplant your first seedlings, here's how I did it!

I'm sure most of you will know by now that I'm all about sustainable floristry and trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible, so I chose some inexpensive 8cm compostable pots for this job. They don't have drainage holes as they're obviously quite permeable, but to be on the safe side I also punched some holes in the bottom of each with a skewer.

I also bought some good-quality compost - there's a noticeable and varying difference in quality among the composts I've bought so far, and I figured it was probably worth making sure this was a nice, crumbly variety that drained well. I filled my pots with the compost then used a pencil to add a hole in the centre.

I used the same pencil to carefully wiggle and disturb the soil around the edges of the pot the seedlings were in, pushing up the soil from underneath to reveal the roots without actually touching them. This worked really well to get the seedlings loose, and I was absolutely fascinated by their little root systems. After several tries I found that placing the roots in the hole and pushing the soil up around the stem of the plant as I did it helped to steady and support the plant, so it didn't flop all over the place.

Now I am only a beginner so this is in no way a how-to guide, just how I did it! In fact, I'm worried that I didn't use enough soil in the pots now (they're kind of just over half full, which was a mistake I think!), and they're currently in the greenhouse looking a little curled up and battered, BUT there are some looking a lot healthier, so I'm hoping that come the spring there'll be some lovely Black Ball cornflowers for me to plant!

Want to know more from an actual expert, or better yet want a video guide? Your wish is my command! Here's an exceedingly helpful page - https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-transplant-seedlings/. Good luck, and I hope you have lots of happy, healthy little seedlings!