It's a tie between purple coneflower and zinnias. They both look great all summer.

I had tall cosmos one summer that were supposed to be pink but came up bright tangerine orange. I LOVED it but have never been able to find it again. Anyone know what this "orphan" might have been?

Cricket

Just one? That's impossible to pick just one!

'carminceta' castor bean -love that dark foliage

'cosmic cosmos'- all that color in 1 ft. lovely- no sprawl

jewel of opar- 'winchester gold'- or something close- airy flowers and bright foliage- a nice one in a pot under my amorphophallus konjac

ONE that I tried for the first time and liked a lot was balsam. They grow from seed easily, and reseed themselves.

ONE other one that I liked, again new to me, was stock. It smells like spicy/sweet - the catalog says cloves, but it's not that strong.

Both of these will be repeaters for me this summer.

Maude, do you start your stock early or plant in the spring outside? I have never had good luck with stocks and I think they are beautiful. How long did they last for you?

I planted them early, but also set them out in the garden early. The ones that had to wait to be planted out never bloomed.
I'd say, guessing, that I set them out about mid-April (15 - 21st?).

Those set out early continued to bloom until late fall, although they became floppy. Some were over 5' tall when I stretched them up, but they were resting on their 'elbows' so the flowers were only about 3' off the ground.

None of them had more than one flower stalk. Does anyone know if that's normal? I paid only 10¢ for the seeds, so maybe they were freaks. (?)