I'd use pansies because they are prolific and early bloomers. Also, very recognizable by your average house buyer. Sometimes too fancy of plants could drive away a potential buyer. At least that's what our realtor told us when we sold ours three years ago. JMHO

Shauna

Thanks Shauna!

Good idea to stick with easily recognizable plants. I would be thrilled to find a house with gardens full of unusual and exotic plants, but I can definitely see how that would be intimidating to some.

I'll have to see if I can find some cheap pansy seeds somewhere. I wonder how long they would take to get to the blooming stage if I WSed them in the next couple of days?

Any other flower suggestions out there?

Thanks,
Cindy

Speaking of pansies, want to see something funny?

These self seeded last year and I now have a total carpet of pansies.

Direct sow them now and they should be blooming in about 6 or 7 weeks.

Cindy, you've got mail.

Shauna

Shauna, those are so gorgeous! Is that carpet of pansies a pic from this year? Very impressive!

I got your e-mail and sent you a reply!

Cindy

Yup, that "carpet", as well as many, many, many more babies is the result of them having their fun at their party. I transplanted all of those "moms" last summer and raked out the area that I dug them out of. Guess what? I raked hundreds and hundreds of seeds over the area, resulting in the "carpet". They came up a few weeks later and I just left them to see what would happen. Well, that's what happened. I just took that picture yesterday.

DH wants me to leave them alone and have a mass bed of them. He loves pansies, but I think that's because it is the only flower that he can name. I'm thinking of dividing them into clumps around the beds. But then, I'm just asking for more and more self-seeding. And then there's all the other ones that are ALL through every bed. Well, at least they're pretty weeds and very recognizable. lol Now, everyone understands why I said last fall that I will never waste greenhouse space on pansies ever again.

Shauna

Alyssum and marigolds are quick bloomers too.

My earliest blooms from WS'ing were around the end of June - early July:

Calendula
Lavatera
Bachelor Buttons
Venidium
Nasturtiums

According to my notes from last year I WS'd all those in early April, give or take.

I kinda "cheat" with my earliest outdoor bloomers though because I bring my over-wintered stuff out. Geraniums and impatiens go in containers on the front porch to fill that "instant gratification" need! LOL

Something I'm trying this year is Linaria it is suppose to be very quick from sowing time to blooming time.
Shauna your blooming self seeded pansies look more or less like mine did last year..they came up in the hundreds..
{{gwi:738363}}
savona

Now who could ask for prettier weeds than those? I use the term so loosely because I love pansies, too. I am getting more and more tempted to just leave my carpet and intermix a few other things into it. The foxgloves look really nice with them, Savona.

Shauna

Absolutely gorgeous Savona!

Shauna, that "carpet o'pansies" you have growing there would look great with lots of things! I always leave my johnny-jump-ups to do the same thing. They pretty much take over but easy enough to plant between.

~Ang~

Shauna your carpet of pansies would probably do better if thinned out a bit..I have to confess I went around and collected seeds from mine last fall..and did up a couple flats of them from the collected seed to use in planters etc..plus a nice little cheap gift to give to my friends..lol..savona

Can you believe it - they started flowering today. About 3 or 4 of them popped up flower buds today. They should be open tomorrow or Sunday. I'll take a picture then to show you.

Shauna

Thanks for adding to the suggestions, Prairierose and Crazydaisy. I have seeds for some of the ones you mentioned, so I'll have more choices now.

Savona, your pansies are beautiful too. They're just so cheerful looking:) I've never tried Linaria before, but they're really pretty. Maybe I'll try that one next year.

Shauna, I can't believe that you have blooms already! I did have a couple of pansies in the middle flower bed last year and I hope that they self-seeded.

Cindy

Gardeners down here grow pansies during the winter. Whenever I see them I think of Wisconsin....BTW, what does WS mean?

wintersow . . . wintersowing, etc. We have many of us on this forum that sow seeds in flats, pots, jugs, whatever, throughout the late winter and early spring to grow our plants. This isn't isolated to our northern zones. It is done in all zones. Check out he winter sowing forum and you'll see what is being done.

Shauna

"We have many of us on this forum that sow seeds in flats, pots, jugs, whatever, throughout the late winter and early spring to grow our plants."

That should say "outside" after "jugs". Let me try this again.

Many of us on this, and other forums on GW, utilize wintersowing to start our plants from seed. We sow the seeds into various types of containers and place them outside during the winter. When the seed is ready to sprout, it comes up, produces a beautiful seedling and gets planted in the garden, where it quite often does better than the ones that we start indoors. Check out the wintersowing forum and you'll find many, many people everywhere that are enjoying this easy way of starting plants.

Does that sound better? Wow, I must've been half asleep earlier.

Shauna