This is a practice that I am still experimenting with, but I will tell you what has worked for me in the past. Typically, I start annuals in pots and then plant them where I want them in my perennial borders, but there are alot of plants, especially spring bloomers that are best sowed in place. I think that's what you are interested in.

I have had excellent luck with larkspur and shirley poppies. You want to take a cultivator and scratch the soil where you want to sow (a couple of inches deep, assuming that your beds already have excellent soil conditions.). Then sow your seeds (larkspur and poppy seed are really tiny, so use a very light hand) right on top of the cultivated soil. Use your hand and firm the seed into the soil. (Pat it like a baby's behind.) Then water it in with a fine spray. Keep it moist until the seeds begin to germinate. After that, rain will typically do the job, but keep an eye on your babies.

Timing is everything in zone 7. I usually sow these seeds in late October to early/mid November. Temperatures have to be falling, but you want the seeds to have at least a month or so before frost arrives. They will form rosettes of foliage and then just sit there all winter long doing nothing. Then in the spring they shoot up and bloom gloriously. Once they bloom, the poppies immediately begin to look very ratty. I usually leave a plant or two of each color standing to make seed, which I collect, and pull the rest out, because by then, it's time for summer planting. Larkspur plants look better than the poppies, but the bloom is never anything like the first flush, especially once our temps begin to heat up, so I save seed and pull
them out too.

I planted nigella one year. It did okay, but the blooms were kind of a washed out color and they succumbed to the heat extremely fast, so I never have used them again. I have never grown Clarkia. This year, I am going to sow Forget Me Not seeds in some of my shadier beds and see how they do. From all I read, if they bloom well the first year, they will self sow and replenish themselves from then on. I sowed some in a big pot last spring as an experiment and was surprised and pleased at how much heat they could take and how very pretty they were.

As for fall bloomers, I have a couple of the old faithful chrysanthemums (Sheffield and Ryan's Yellow) that are perennial in my beds and I love them. But I don't buy potted mums. They bloom one time, and if our temps are still hot (normal), the blooms last no time, and then that's it. Rip them out, throw them away. I sowed marigold seeds this week into quart sized pots. They will be a lovely blooming size by October and they will bloom beautifully in autumn colors until frost. Cheap. Easy. Effective. I never miss mums.

I also grow asters in my perennial beds along with salvias, grasses, cupheas, helianthus, etc., so I have plenty of fall color. The marigolds perk up the front edges where the summer annuals are getting tired by then, and I use them in pots around the porch.

Hope this helps. I'll be looking forward to reading other responses. I love trying annuals from seed. It's an inexpensive way to learn more.

cameron ... wow ... wow ... wow ... thanks to you i have been sitting here WAY TOO LONG perusing your site instead of outside weeding!

your gardens & blogs are inspiring ... and you need advice from ME (??) ... i don't think soooo .. (grin)

ok, i'll bite anyway ... i love self-sowing annuals: cleome, larkspur, hollyhocks, & foxglove ...

phyl

I'm getting really excited about sowing annuals. I've been researching the web for all kinds of wonderful seeds...it's a new area for me.

Donna...great zone advice! I'm glad to hear about nigella as it's a real unknown to me.

Phyl...sowing annuals from seeds are new to me as I've been a perennial person! Now, I want to get some more blooms from annuals, but I don't want to plant pots of them!

I'm glad you like my blog. I've tried to bring in automatic gardening news and magazine articles from all over the world so that gardeners can have a central place to get a good dose of information each day!

Thanks!
Cameron

I ordered seeds last night! I just couldn't wait any longer, I even got some seeds for spring planting before the selections were gone in the colors that I want. This will be a new experiment with the larkspur and poppies especially. I've grown zinnias and nicotiana before.

larkspur (carmine, deep violet-blue and lavender)
nicotiana (purple and green)
zinnias (purple, green and lavender)
laceflower (green)
poppies -- trying several varieties to see what works best in my zone (rhoeas,laciniatum, atlanticum)

My seeds that I ordered from Diane's Seeds arrived today! I am very pleased with the quality of the packaging and the pricing. She sent a free pack of cosmos, too!

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: photos of the seed packets in my blog

I have ordered from Diane's Seeds before, and I love her seeds. She gives alot of seed for the money and her instructions are dead on every time.

Please let us know how the laceflower (ammi?) does for you. I have never tried it for fear it wouldn't like my heat, but drool over it everytime I see it in catalogs.

Your color combos sounds luscious. :)

Well, I'm so excited. I've been checking out my husband's work bench in the garage that is fitted with a flourescent light fixture. We tried our outdoor timer on it and it works! So, I'm going to get a better growing light tube to put in there and start some of my spring seeds there next year. Since our house is passive solar, our garage stays fairly warm all winter.

You're gonna want alot more lights. :)

Oh, I don't plan to start but a few inside. Our weather here is accomdating for some of these to be planted in the fall and the others in spring.

Thanks!

I just LOVE self-seeding annuals, especially love collecting the seeds and dispersing them where I want. Even with that, there always are surprises! I live in Z5, and nigella do wonderfully here.

Some good self-seeders: nigella, silene, malva,rose campion, cleome, cosmos, poppy, forget-me-not, columbine. The forget-me-nots and columbine are biennials, and sometime my columbine last for 3 or 4 years.

I started out with white and purple columbine, and now have a lovely range of pinks, too. They cross-pollinate, so you get new colors. Cosmos does this, foxglove does this.

Thank you for your list of favorites. My husband and I cleared out some ugly shrubs today to make room for more flowers. I love columbine...I don't know why I haven't ordered those! I've got cosmos and poppy seeds. I started to order nigella, but backed out because I can't figure out the bloom time for my zone.

Thanks!

Phyl345 says, "i love self-sowing annuals: cleome, larkspur, hollyhocks, & foxglove ... "

Ohhhh, you grow hollyhocks in your zone 5?
I discovered some lovely tall double blooms in Ireland and wondered if I'd be able to grow them in Alabama, but nevr thought they'd make it up in New England.

Do you grow yours from seed? And they come back on their own in following years? How fantastic...

Cameron - keep in mind, that some or possibly most columbines do not bloom until the second year. The first year you will have lush, green growth and the following spring they will bloom.

I agree with dispersing the nigella, larkspur, poppies and cleomes in the fall - best time to do that in this Zone 7 - and larkspurs do well in early spring... they are not too crazy about the heat.

How about Malva Zebrina - they are great reseeders and put on a great show!

Good luck

Carrie

Carrie, I've got the larkspur and poppies to sow. Cleomes, if I remember from my past experience, were a bit prickly...am I remembering the right plant?

Malva Zebrina would be new to me. I'll have to do some research on deer resistance.

I just worked on my new perennial bed (pulled out some shrubs and such). I tried to leave room for annuals (zinnias especially will be sown there next spring). I just ordered my Dutch iris and allium bulbs for the space.

Thanks!
Cameron

Yes, Cameron - they are prickly.

We have deer (and rabbits, etc) - but I didn't notice the malvas eaten - which may not really mean anything because I have tons of borders and the deer may have just passed the malvas on the way to something better...

Japanese beetles, however, go for Malva but they are so gorgeous, it's worth it. They reseed great but the only problem with larkspurs, poppies and malvas (from my experience) is that they are very difficult to transplant. You may be able to lift them when they are really small (the malva/larkspurs), but transplanting small reseeded poppies are really difficult and sometimes almost impossible because of their long roots. Maybe someone else on this forum has had luck transplanting them, but I haven't...

The cleomes can get very, very tall. The larkspurs I have found look great in the early spring but as it gets really hot, I have found the foliage starts to get yellowish and a bit ratty. Unfortunately, I like to harvest the seeds, so I deal with the foliage a bit longer than I like....

Carrie

Carrie -- I can use cleomes in the middle of my outer gardens that can be viewed from above and below the gardens. I think the purple ones will be great in an area that I'm reworking based on apricot colors.

I can't embed my seed/bulb spreadsheet here in the thread (it won't accept the code). So, I've uploaded it to my gardening blog. Perhaps the example of keeping records in a spreadsheet will be helpful to others.

Thanks!
Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: seeds and bulbs list

Cameron, I can't help much with the fall sowing (I absolutely love winter-sowing so it's pretty much the only way I grow from seed), but you asked about August/September blooms. Yes, zinnias and dahlias are beautiful then, and I also wanted to recommend chinese asters.

They bloom here for me in zone 6 in late August, so I don't know how that will translate for you, but they are simply gorgeous. Very elegant flowers. And they do reseed for me, so perhaps you will be able to save seed and sow next fall.

I've never heard of Diane's Seeds. I'll have to check them out... like I need *another* good place to buy seed, lol!

:)
Dee

Dee, if you look at this blog article of mine, you can click on the photos of the seeds that I received from Diane. I'm going to order more seeds from her.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: my order from Diane's Seeds

Cameron, thanks for the link. I went to the website last night and looked around a bit, and it's good to see what the company sends out before I buy it, so thanks.

Now, I just need to practice some restraint...

:)
Dee

Hi Cameron,

Like you, I am trying to find some things I can use for cutting in Autumn. I am about 8 months into my first cutting garden and lucky me, it is large. In addition to annuals, I am trying to find berries, pods, seedheads, etc., that will look good in arrangements. One of my latest magazines uses nandina berries in several arrangements so I am considering a purchase of that. Someone also recommended a line of roses grown just for their hips, and they are sold based upon their hip colors. I plan to purchase one of those also.

Teresa

Teresa, Good idea! I have nandina 'Alba' with white berries. It's a beautiful foliage plant as well. My curly willow tree supplies fantastic branches that hold up great. I cut out the ones that are overlapping to shape up the tree.

I asked over on the Carolina Forum, but I think everyone's gone to the State Fair.

So...the temps are finally falling. We had upper 80s until Friday, now we're suddenly getting frost warnings for this week.

Is it time to sow larkspur and poppies? My Dutch iris bulbs are arriving on Tuesday, so I'm ready to get out in the garden and get these going.

Thanks!