A forest of seed and plant catalogs probably arrived in your mailbox and inbox over the holidays, but I wonder if you’ve had time yet to peruse them? I have, and I wanted to share a few of my favorite flowers from seed. Truly, you can have a lovely garden with a few packets of seed. How do you think the pioneers and Native Americans did it? They didn’t have a garden nursery following them about. They saved and swapped seeds.
Pick a sunny spot, direct sow these lovelies and stand back. Before long, you can create a garden of joy. Just remember to thin seedlings and rid your patch of competing weeds. Also, you will need to water. You don’t even need great soil, but please don’t plant them directly in red clay. If you do, you’ll hear a bell tolling a death knell for your future flowers.
Zinnias are possibly my favorite direct sown flower because there are so many possibilities. You can grow the very small ‘Persian Carpet‘ or ‘Thumbelina,’ or you can go all wild and crazy and pick a designer selection like ‘Decor‘ from Renee’s Garden Seeds. I also love ‘Art Deco‘ from Botanical Interests. With the crazy, drought stricken summers we’ve had, zinnias don’t even suffer much from mildew, and there are certain hybrids selected for even less. Frankly, I don’t care. I just plant something in front of the larger zinnias and enjoy the parade of pollinators that come sipping. Butterflies and bumbles love zinnias.
Sunflowers. Every sunny garden should have sunflowers. Buy dwarf varieties like ‘Musicbox‘ from Renee’s Garden Seeds, or cute little ‘Teddy Bear‘ from Botanical Interests. Plant tall varieties at the rear of everything else, or try the center of the bed and grow other things around your towering and graceful beauties. Plus, you can even make your child a sunflower house. My darling friend, Sharon Lovejoy, shows you how in Sunflower Houses : Inspiration from the Garden – A Book for Children and Their Grown-Ups.
If you plant sunflowers in succession, you’ll get more blooms for even longer. Last year, I loved Burpee’s ‘Strawberry Blonde‘ and ‘Autumn Beauty‘ mix. Those dark stems and flowers made me swoon, but there weren’t very many seeds of ‘Strawberry Blonde’ in the package. Buy two if you want a lot of flowers.
Although sunflowers are often grown in vegetable gardens and look great there, they can be a part of any garden scheme. Okay, maybe not the modern garden, but even there, perhaps, in a monochromatic soft yellow?
To climb around those sunflowers, you need some vines. Cardinal climber (Ipomoea x multifida) and its relative cypress vine (I. quamoclit), are easy annual vines. They are both quite aggressive as are most morning glory relatives, but I still love them. They self sow too. You’ve been warned.
Ah morning glories. I found this photo of ‘Heavenly Blue‘ I grew in 2011, I have ‘Grandpa Ott’s‘ everywhere in my garden, but I think I now need ‘Heavenly Blue’ again. It would also be pretty vining about something tall.
Datura. I know devil’s trumpet got a black eye when some local kids tried to get high by eating the seeds. Datura is poisonous from the tip of its trumpet to its leaves, roots and seeds. So, don’t eat or smoke it. Instead, plant the seeds and enjoy beautiful white or purple flowers. It also has awesome gray/green foliage. Cool plant.
Castor bean is another plant nearly banned from commerce. You can still find seeds from a few retailers, along with those quietly passed around at garden clubs. It is such a magnificent plant it seems a shame. I have an idea. Instead of banning poisonous plants from commerce, let’s teach our children. Education is always more powerful than ignorance. On my property, we have poke sallet and stately hollies too. Many plants are poisonous. Are they next?
Enough of plants that will kill you if you are silly enough to ingest them. Here are some other easy seeds to grow.
Cosmos. Although I love the pink, red and white ones that sway in gentle breezes, they topple over like divas in high heels on our wind swept plains. I grow the shorter yellow and orange versions. There is also a small white one, ‘Snow Sonata’ I’ve grown. I’m going to grow ‘Little Ladybirds‘ for a change of pace. I like bright colors in our sunny climate.
Bachelor’s Buttons/cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus.) ‘Blue Boy’ is my hands down favorite because it has solid blue flowers and silver foliage. Silver means drought tolerant, and true blue is so rarely found. If you deadhead cornflowers, they will bloom for two months.
Calendula or pot marigold is an early favorite. So are nasturtiums. I direct sow the seeds for both of these plants at the end of February. Yes, February. They come up when they’re ready, and I can enjoy them until our weather gets hot. Both are also edible. I like ‘Flashback‘ calendulas, along with ‘Tip Top Apricot’ and ‘Empress of India’ nasturtiums. The large seeds are also easy for small hands. Johnny’s Selected Seeds have a lot of calendula varieties. To me, they all look pretty much the same though. While we’re considering the edible, let’s also plant borage shall we?
A friend of mine, Cheryl, has the most exquisite dark red celosia. She’s promised me seed, but I keep forgetting to get by her house which is in Oklahoma City. It has dark red leaves and is close in appearance to Amigo Mahogany Red Celosia. You can start celosia indoors, or sprinkle then in fall after blooming like Cheryl does. I suppose they could be direct sown in spring too, but it would take them awhile to bloom.
I am a big fan of Amaranth, both the dark burgundy plume type and the Autumn Palette mix again from Botanical Interests. They are tall and feathery, take full or partial sun, and the seed is beloved by small birds.
There are so many other flowers that are easy to grow from seed. What are your favorites?
I tried a “shell” variety of cosmos year and it was interesting and lovely. The “inside-out” petals are very unique!
I put in new flower beds this past fall and I look forward to trying some old-fashioned seeds this spring–especially larkspur (yes, another poisonous plant!)
Sharrie, so many plants are. I’ve grown seashells cosmos and loved them. Wish the Oklahoma wind didn’t love blowing them over.
Thanks for this list! I am going to try to grow some flowers from seed this year and although I’ve never tried it before, I’m super excited to order some seeds and get started!
I love when my seeds germinate and flourish….not all do. Our soil is so heavy and some areas are really wet…others -super dry. I had a lot of Castor Bean plants last year… I love the tropical look to them. (Did you know that Ricinus communis is in Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm??) I scattered a bunch of seeds a couple weeks ago, hoping we get some cold weather for them to have their cold stratification. One of these years my garden is going to be full and lush!
Janet, I hear you on the clay soil. Some areas just aren’t conducive to gardening, but we keep trying. I wasn’t aware of it being in Burt’s Bees. I’ve worn that lip balm a lot over the years. Your garden already is lush.
So many seeds so little sun! I plant as many as I can and hope for the best. Cypress Vine did not come back~How’s that for a tough garden spot! I am trying it again because the hummers love it. xogail
Excellent choices, Dee. I’m planning to try more plants from seed this year, too. The hobby got me a small greenhouse, so that will help with our short growing season. Thanks for the suggestions!
I love larkspur!!
Oh Ann, I do too. Another great one to grow from seed. Thanks for the reminder.
You make me want to run out and buy massive amounts of seeds! Thank you for the plug for educating children about the dangers of eating unknown plants. So many plants are not safe for little ones that education really is the answer.
Education is always better than elimination where flowers are concerned I think.
I do need to use more seeds. I guess I am just too lazy. I rarely use seeds.
Lisa, it’s just that it’s so cheap to grow things from seed whether they’re vegetable or flower. I may do one on veggies soon too.
I share many of your favorites, and you’ve given me an itch to try some of the ones you’ve mentioned. As for my old favorites, I’d mention ‘Orange Profusion’ Zinnia for a sort of low Zinnia groundcover. Then there’s Sunflower ‘Italian White’, and Morning Glory ‘Heavenly Blue’. One I’d really like to try this year is Tithonia, I’d like to find a good hot orange variety.
Jason, I do love the Profusion series of zinnias. My fave is ‘Apricot Profusion,’ but I think the orange is even more hardy. I love ‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glories, and I’m always up for another sunflower.
I have had excellent luck with all of these flowers grown from seed. And it’s okay if my vines go crazy covering my potting shed made from trellises; more shade for me. tjl
Trish, I love those vines. I really do. All of them. Only autumn clematis bothers me in my garden.
I love old fashioned petunias. I got them years ago in the Select seeds catalog. They reseed for me and have a great aroma. I’m also a big fan of heliotrope and celosia.
Brenda, what a good idea to mention those. I don’t know that I’ve ever tried old fashioned petunias other than the Mexican types that fostered ‘Laura Bush’ petunias (which I love.) I like heliotrope’s fantastic scent, and celosia is growing on me.
Poor me with an acre of shade, but Forget-Me-Not is at least some consolation.
Poor you indeed, Marian, but you can grow some of these in partial shade. What about Nemesia? I can’t grow it at all.
I like to grow nasturtiums from seed.
Good post!
I love nasturtiums of all types and stripes Carol!
You have all my favorite direct sown flowers…can’t wait to plan for where and what I am planting this year!
Honestly Donna, I’m holding my breath for more rain, but I find myself terribly excited for spring.
I’ll add my warning to yours regarding the cardinal climber and cypress vine. I have a white blooming variety that’s charming until the spring after it goes to seed. I have to be vigilant in pulling up seedlings when I see them.
Cindy, I must be vigilant about some of these too.