Different Roll and Grow Flowers

Commercial Products

• There are several companies that offer roll and grow flower seed products under a variety of names. Depending on your flower garden needs, there are commercial roll and grow flower products with seeds for short or tall flowers, old-fashioned flower gardens, English gardens, shade gardens, fragrant or butterfly and hummingbird flower gardens. Some roll and grow paper has fertilizer in the paper along with the flower seeds for even more convenience and success. These commercial products are easy to cut into shapes for containers and unusual garden areas. In addition, the roll and grow flower seeds will stay right where you plant them and not slide or wash away.

Homemade Seed Mats

• With a little effort and far less cost, you can make your own seed mats that will give you similar results to the more expensive commercial products. One of the advantages of making your own flower seed mats is the ability to select exactly the annual flower varieties you want to grow. Use heavy brown paper towels rolled out to the desired length, and then spread a coat of a thick flour and water mixture over one side. Place the chosen flower seeds so the seeds are spaced appropriately, and allow the paste with flower seeds to dry. Once it's dried, the flower seed mat can be gently rolled up and stored until planting time.

Homemade Seed Tape

• Homemade flower seed tapes are similar to homemade flower seed mats, but they are used for planting a single variety of flowers or a specific arrangement or order of the flowering plants. Seed tapes eliminate the need to thin and space seedlings later. Any type of paper can be used --- copy paper, newspaper, paper towels or old-style dot matrix computer paper cut in 1-inch strips. As with seed mats, the seeds are adhered to the tape using a flour and water paste. To ensure that the flower seed spacing is correct, use a paintbrush to dip into the paste, pick up a seed with the paste and glue the seed to the strip. After the paste has dried on the flower seed tape, roll it up and store it in a plastic bag until planting time.

Homemade Seed Paper

• Although homemade seed paper is too stiff to roll up, it is a practical method to recycle old junk mail and paper into something useful that often can be used as a gift. Using traditional homemade paper making techniques, flower seeds can be placed on the paper before the drying process begins. When the homemade paper has dried, it can be planted the same as roll and grow flowers or torn or cut into shapes for planting. You can also incorporate the homemade seed paper in gift cards and tags.