I'd probably direct sow most if not all. All of these are pretty easy and quick from seed.

With calendula, there might be an advantage to starting the seeds indoors because they're not overly fond of heat, so getting them off to an early start will help them to produce well before the insane heat arrives. Calendula is, technically speaking, a cool-season annual but I have had them hang on and bloom well into the summer some years. Generally the cooler and wetter the summer, the happier the calendulas will be. n fact, they do not necessarily die in the heat, but they can stall and look like they wish they were dead if it gets really hot. I have just ignored them and left them alone when the heat makes them miserable, and then cut them back sharply in mid- to late summer, water and feed them, and wait for them to regrow and bloom well in autumn. Sometimes they even overwinter here in the years when winter is warm, so they are almost perennials here.

With the daisies, it depends on which daisy you're talking about.

Dawn

Thanks Dawn. I am glad you said that. I got the results from our survey at the mkt and one request was cut flowers. Last year we had a vendor that came 3x with flowers so not much competition there. If nothing else I will donate leftovers to my friends. I am thinking I need at least 10000 seeds to get going. The bees are going to love me.
I think the daisies are shasta, I will look later to be sure.

You're welcome, Kim. Have you ever bought seeds from Eden Brothers? They sell seeds in bulk, including by the pound. I don't remember if their variety descriptions tell you how many seeds per pound, but if they don't, you can ask Google something like How many zinnia seeds per pound and get a pretty good answer. I like Eden Brothers, and I am going to have to be on my best behavior when I go there to get their webpage and link it here. I will not order seeds. I will not order seeds. I will not order seeds. Okay, now that I have convinced myself that I will not order seeds, I'll go get their page and link it.

Eden Brothers

Uh thanks I think.... Uh might be a new addiction right there LOL

Uh-oh. Whatta link!!!

Just the photos of all the zinnias alone will make a person swoon!

I didn't even make it to the zinnias yet. . . swooned just at the cosmos. . . Breathe, Nancy. Stay calm. . . abandon abandon! Okay, now relax and repeat "I will not order seeds, I WILL not order seeds . . " I'll regroup and recheck it in a few minutes. Thinking I need more soil amendment materials, thinking I need some bed expansions.

Dawn. Seriously? You did NOT just post that website. I DON'T NEED ANY MORE SEEDS.

*blahblahblahblahblah*

Yes she did and if we are not quiet she may come back and post another one...lol

lol lol lol

Have I mentioned HPS? They sell seeds in both small quantities and large and, for those so inclined to spend money of flats, labels, pots and such, they have all that too. Many of their items are aimed at professional growers, as you can tell by some of the seed packets. What homeowner needs 500 seeds of moss rose? Well, me, but other than that, who would buy that many seeds?????

HPS Seed

And, don't forget the little offbeat and unusual companies like Bountiful Gardens. They have all the regular sorts of things, but also seeds for oil crops, compost crops, fodder crops, cover crops, etc.

Bountiful Gardens

Now, watch what you say or I'll come back and link three more seed websites. Hmmm. Has anyone here ever ordered from Heavenly Seed?

Heavenly Seed

There, that's a bonus one. Don't worry, I could go on linking more seed retailers all night, but I won't.

Oh dear I will never get to sleep now

LOL. . . heaven.

Kim, I love those old seed packets. Sugar Lump is an old commercial variety that was developed in Germany. It is older than you and I, so I guess it qualifies as a heirloom. I believe it hit the market in the early 1950s. Jung Seed first brought it to the USA from Germany. It still is sold today, but more often than not, you'll find it under its newer name "Gardener's Delight". It is just your typical indeterminate red cherry tomato. Some people find it to be pretty sweet, others find it more acidic. Perhaps the variation stems from differences in soil and climate, which is common with tomatoes. Or it could just be that each of us has taste buds that perceive tomato flavor differently.

I hope you were able to sleep---with visions of seed packets dancing in your head.

Nancy, I always say this and mean it sincerely....enabling is what I do best. Why, I have seed companies stashed up my sleeves long enough to carry us through the next ten years. There's literally thousands of them. The problem is that it is hard to weed through the bad ones to find the good ones. Luckily, with the internet, it is easy to search for reviews of different retailers.

Having said that, if I like a company, I can ignore bad reviews because very often it is the gardener themselves who are the problem---they aren't getting good germination, for example, because of something they did, not because the seeds are flawed, but they blame it on the company. It must be frustrating to be a good company providing good seeds that did great in germination tests and to see your company and seeds slammed in reviews when you know there's nothing wrong with the seeds. Now, bad customer service is something entirely different. I have little patience for bad customer service.

Dawn

Finally got to sleep last night with dreams of flowers and pepper plants swirling through my head. I ordered a few plants online--couldn't remember what I ordered from whom, so spent a while looking for my email receipts. That's pretty lame, eh. And come to find out, I had ordered five lantana instead of the two I thought I'd ordered. Bummer. (Not.) Today would have been a good day for them to come. I am pouting because it's so cold and unfriendly out there. It's so wrong! I may have to go to Select Seeds and console myself. And Eden Bros AND Heavenly Seeds AND Bountiful Gardens AND HSP Seeds. That sounds like a really good idea. I think I need a little enabling. . . so appreciate it.

Nancy, I'm laughing with you, not at you, because I've done that before. I try to always remember to save my online order to my Favorites list so I won't forget what i ordered. It helps prevent duplication. Once the order arrives, I just duplicate it so my bookmarks list doesn't get out of control. I keep the receipts in an online shopping folder for year though, so I can look back and see what I purchased in whatever year.

I agree that it is so wrong of Mother Nature to send us winter-like weather in March when we had spring and summer type weather in January and February. I guess this is winter getting its revenge on us for all the beautiful warm days we've had.

The counties across the river from us have a Frost Advisory for tonight/tomorrow morning. I guess the frost is going to stop at the river and not come bother us. Well, really, that's not true. We had a frost as recently as twice last week, so I guess the NWS doesn't feel a need to advise us that another one is likely. On the Texas side of the river, some counties included in that Frost Advisory haven't had a freeze since January 8th, so they may have forgotten what a freeze is as well as what a frost is. Hence, they get the advisory. I expect locations close to us but just south of the river likely had a frost along with us last week but folks up on higher ground might not have.

In a few minutes I have to go carry indoors a lot of plants that have been enjoying the sunlight (if not the wind) today. I don't want to forget and leave them out. I think I'm going to drag the fig tree in the big container into the garage tonight. Usually I would just leave it out on the patio when we're only supposed to go into the low 30s because some cold exposure is necessary in order to get good fruitset, but this one already has formed 6 or 8 very early figs and I don't want for the to get frosted and to fall off.

If the wind stays up all night, the figs would be safe, I think. But if the wind dies down, then frost might settle on my precious baby figs. I made the decision that I'm not going to cover up anything in the garden. None of it was damaged last week, not even the warm-season perennials that are up and growing too early for their own good, and we aren't expected to be any colder tonight than we were last week.

More and more native wildflowers are blooming, but there's not too much blooming in the fenced garden yet---some dianthus I think, and that might be it. Well, maybe any stray chickweed or shepherd's purse plants that I might have missed. Out in the pastures, the bloodroot, wild garlic/onions, blue star grass, spring beauties, bluets and dandelions are blooming but all of them can tolerate the kind of cold we're expecting tonight.

At least we're not in the parts of the USA experiencing a blizzard, snow storm, wind storm, nor'easter or any combination thereof. The Revenge of Winter is going to hit them a lot harder this week than it is hitting us.

I need to shop for some things online. I keep saying that but I cannot sit still long enough to do it, especially with Brother Coyote lurking in the woods.

Dawn

I had a seed high so high I didn't come down till after 130. Good thing I didn't have to go into work till 8.

So many possibilities. I would like to grow a couple things just for greenery. Can't decide for sure what would grow best here

Kim, most of the ones you began this thread with are ones I'm learning to love. In my previous life, I never worked on zinnias or cosmos (though did plant a bed of them for my DIL, and we both loved them). And I still wish I could grow my beloved hostas, lilies, tea roses. . . but not willing to go there as they are deer MAGNETS in addition to them not caring for our extreme hot. In fact if the one giant hosta I put in last year does happen to pop up this year (after promptly being devoured last year by a rabbit or particularly adventurous and enterprising deer), I'll move it to a location right next to our deck, which has not yet been bothered by the #$%^& critters. I adore hyacinth beans--they were so pretty intermingled with blue morning glories, which I will replicate this year in one spot. (And it will be a challenge pulling all the purple morning glories from that bed for the past two years. They are prolific, to say the least; and covered one whole bed, climbing up the deck lathe and rails.)

One of my recently acquired GREAT-granddaughters is here this week--a wonderful 12-yr old, turning 13 in June. She invites herself over often (during school breaks or summer vacation) from near Tulsa; in fact invited herself over right after I'd moved down after GDW and I got married 3 years ago. . . after having only met me once. Love her to pieces--and can you imagine how good it makes me feel that she wants to be here?! Bummed that it's so darned cold. We were hoping for nice weather so we could be out on the lake fishing all week. Last two years she helped me start bunches of seedlings--but that was before I met all of you and realized I needed to get them started in February. . . so now she'll have little flower seedlings to take home with her when she leaves on Saturday, instead--which makes her very happy. She loves art. (And I paint.) She's so polite, she has never asked if she could paint, but I've got a surprise for her tomorrow; we're going to spend the rest of the week painting, in her "company" time. (She's at that age where she loves having alone time, and doesn't have that luxury much when she's home, because of friends and relatives and her toddler sister and chores, so loves having ALONE time in "her" room here. Sometimes I don't see her for 3-4 hours at a stretch.) She is going to be beside herself, and I can hardly wait to spring it on her tomorrow.

I digress. Dawn, glad you're laughing, with me. But I have to tell ya, I was so tickled to discover that I'd ordered FIVE lantana! Because I DO watch my $$ and don't go overboard, loved learning I'd gone overboard by accident. All I could do was laugh! heh heh heh. AND it's only in the past 2 years I've discovered the delights of zinnias, cosmos, four o'clocks. I'm growing a bunch of nicotiana (I'd always intended to before, but hadn't gotten around to it) and they are going nuts. . . likewise, Gaillardia, Mexican sunflowers. Gonna broadcast bunches of bachelor buttons. Am delighted to have six pots of black-eyed Susan vines outgrowing their pots. . . life is good! Wow--GOTTA get this extra BIG bed going. . . that's my project as soon as it warms up a bit.

I'm into this crazy sleep cycle thing. During my job life, I often had trouble sleeping because of job stress, and thinking thinking of all the things I had to do. . . NOW I have trouble sleeping because of joy. Mind won't be quiet. It's either art or gardening or quilting things zooming around in circles, firing on all cylinders, the moment I lie down. Guess there are worse problems to have, eh?

By the way. If this were a legal document, I'd be spellchecking and proofing like crazy. It isn't. So I don't care and hope you don't. . . with the typos and left out words! :) Here's my excuse. My bum right hand. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Kim, Seed highs can cause sleepless nights. Greenery may be a tough one in your climate because of pests and the constant scouring of the sand every time the wind blows. What are some of the types of greenery that you're considering?

Nancy, I had great ambitions for fabulous landscaping when we moved here, and I got away with it for a brief while until the deer found us and started devouring all my beautiful plants. Between deer and persistent drought (for example, less than 19" of rain in 2003 followed by a year almost as bad in 2005 and heavy rain/flooding in between in 2004), I quickly learned that it was not a matter of what I wanted to grow here---it was going to be all about whatever I could find that could survive here. Often, the plants that will survive heavy clay in drought absolutely will not survive heavy clay in flood type years. So, I really focused on plants known to grown in the difficult prairie soils that fluctuate between drought and flood, with very little in between. Nowadays, anything that really matters must be planted inside my fenced garden in highly amended soil and well-protected from wildlife, and I just don't worry much about the plain old basic shrubs, trees and groundcovers up around the house. The deer leave them alone, the rabbits don't eat them, thery're well-established,etc. It isn't the landscape I had hoped to have, but it is the one that works here.

I loved hearing your plans for your sweet 12 year old. That's a hard age to be, when you feel grown up but most people treat you like you're still a child. I am sure she treasures every minute she gets to spend with you and I'm so excited for her that y'all will spend the rest of the week making art. My MIL was a very talented artist and her two granddaughters that lived closest to her seemed to spend a lot of their time with her making art. She always bought them really nice sets of art supplies for Christmas and their birthdays in order to cultivate their interest in art. She passed away relatively young, when her grandchildren still were in high school or middle school, and I know they truly treasure all the memories they have of spending time with her.

I love lantana but grow limited amounts because it is fairly vulnerable in our clay soils here in the winter. It does better in sandier soils. I've taken to planting it in tall raised beds to ensure good enough drainage in the tough wet winters. I'm not sure that my lantanas in the ground survived our 4 degree night here back in January. I guess time will tell, and I'll be surprised if they did. Lanatas are cheap, though. I can get a wide variety of them in 4" pots in the Dallas area for $1.49 to $1.99 at one of my favorite independent nurseries down there, though they won't have them for another few weeks yet.

I long ago gave up ordering plants online because they usually arrive really small and far behind what I can find locally. I hope you have better luck with plants purchased online that what I had back when I ordered them online....which I guess probably was more than 10 years ago.

I have the same crazy sleep cycle because of garden planting excitement. As the time to put plants in the ground grows closer and closer, I wake up at night excited and thinking about everything I can plant the next day. Luckily, working out in the garden then exhausts me so I come to bed early, fall right asleep, sleep hard....and then wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. raring to go again, if only the sun would hurry up and rise so I can go outside. I try to fall back asleep, but it is pointless. Once my gardener's brain is awake, it doesn't want to go back to sleep again. Tim's alarm goes off at 5 a.m. (a new development since he was promoted, because prior to that it was 4 a.m.) so any chance I had of falling back asleep is dead in the water when his alarm goes off.

Dawn

I am so thrilled to know I am not alone with the seed highs, Kim, Dawn. Took me forever to "get" your comment, Kim. Duh. I just wasn't reading it right. At any rate when I finally got it, I sure appreciated it!

I get the problem with ordering plants online, Dawn--but I don't have any good places to buy in person around here. And I'm unwilling to go plant shopping in person. Means a trip to Broken Arrow or Tulsa at the least. And then when I spot plants I want (which often aren't on my LIST, not only do I tend to get them, but I'm at the mercy of the asking price. Because as you know, when one sees a plant one must have, money grows wings and flies right off. The first year I did go to Sanders in Inola, and to Sooner Plant Farm in Park Hill (to pick up pre-ordered plants). Neither were cheap. And I DID get lantana from Lowe's in Muskogee, as well as verbena, snapdragons, asters, Russian sage, a couple cute daylilies, the rosemary (Bonnie Plants) and several other things I'm not remembering.

But this year, everything's from seed, except the 3 Arp, Landmark Rose Sunrise lantanas, Miss Huff lantanas, echinacea purpurea, Brugmansia Cherub, Twister Purple Verbena and Whopper Red Greenleaf begonias--the rosemary, begonias, and lantana because I wanted specific (hardy) ones and doubted I could find them in person. So if they're small they're small. I'll just have to baby them and feed them really good food! :)

I am a fan of spring perennials for cutting. If you can grow peonies, irises and daylilies, you can make fabulous spring bouquets.

My tall white irises, which I think are iris orientalis, are a great backbone flower. Coincidentally...I could bring some to you! (Beware gardeners offering gifts.... lol)

Those are gorgeous Lisa. They do make beautiful arrangements. I have quite a few iris now I have gathered over the last few years into my friendship garden. I will be on the lookout for clearance bulbs to get planted for next year's harvest.

And yes I would really like some of those for my garden. They could be center stage in the irises and other lilies I have. Thank you Lisa.

I am trying to remember what all I use as fillers in those. False indigo (baptisia), hesperis matronalis (dames rocket, which can be invasive), larkspur. Spring is easy because so many things are lush and blooming then! The zinnias should do well for you. I have also grown thetall celosia/cockscomb. I haven't found seed in a while, but they make interesting additions. You might check out purple amaranth as well.

Ahhh, all so beautiful, Lisa!!!

I have amaranth! Good idea

Kim, I will pot up some of the irises for you. Irises multiply like bunnies :)

OH, I know another perennial you need, Becky Shasta Daisies. BEST BEST BEST white daisy for cutting. The stems are sturdy. I have to replace them every so often. I think they probably need good drainage.

I noticed they do multiply. My first iris in this bed came from Moni. I think I have 6 or 8 different kinds now. In fact I made my large flower herb bed after my first fling. It sits between 2 small peach trees and is my favorite spot to sit and eat watermelon in the summer. I wish I would label better.

And those Shasta daisies would be ideal. I will go back to those links from Dawn this weekend and see what I come up with.

I was thinking some sort of grassy type filler that won't wilt easily.

I potted up some of the white irises and I will pot up some of my other bearded irises and a few daylilies for you. It won't help this year, but in a few years it will! :) Grassy fillers? Hm. I have never tried to use my miscanthus, but that might be interesting!

Love the white iris, Lisa. When I first got here, our neighbors were clearing out a vacant lot behind them, and we went up and got a whole pickup load of iris. They now outline pretty much our whole back yard. They're mostly purple, but have some other colors here and there. Do you have Siberian iris? We do not--not sure I could grow it here. . . pretty dry. But I sure do love it. I need to find some compact shasta daisies. . . ours get really tall and flop over; it's a little shady, but they fry in hot sun, so they're better off flopping over. Still, compact ones are on my list.

Thank you Lisa! !! I love adding to this bed. The soil in this bed is horrible but for some reason the iris and artichoke (from dawn 2 yrs ago) love it.

Kim, Johnny's selected seeds has a huge amount of seed for cutting gardens as they supply them to many market growers who raise flowers to sell at farmer's markets. While everything they sell will not adapt to our climate, many of the items they offer would/should grow here.. You might look through their website section of cut flower seeds and see what you can come up with for filler. Their atriplex in different colors might make good filler, though there's a part of me that worries it might become invasive. Amaranths and celosias make great bouqet filler and are relatively fast from seed. I grow both the plume type celosias and the crested ones. Grasses as fillers might get tricky. They may go from green to brown too quickly in your heat to be very useful. Dill, whether in flower or not, would be a delightful filler, and one that smells good too. My favorite one for cutting actually is called "Bouquet". Some other fillers that come to mind include ammi (available now in more colors than just white), didiscus (especially striking in blue), yarrow, basil, globe amaranth, veronica and chamomile (though heat ends its season here pretty early). Some people like to use various mints as bouquet fillers because of the scent of the leaves.

Dawn

Kim, what is a friendship garden?

It's just the name I gave an area where I plant all plants perennials that I have received from friends. There are so many things in there but I don't know if they all are coming back since they got defoliated at the worst time last year.

My artichoke came back and all the irises and 4 other things not sure what they are yet, maybe my naked lilies. It is a free-form space edged by rocks and logs. I expanded last year and think it's about 20x20. My favorite space on this acre.

Flower seeds in bulk.....I forgot Hazzard's.

Hazzard's Seeds

My favorite green filler is my asparagus as it ferns out. Two great uses of asparagus-eating the spears in the spring and using the ferns on rose arrangements during the summer. Most of my coworkers didn't know what the fine green airy plants were and we astonished when I told them asparagus.

Lisa_H OK

years ago I salvaged my grandsons white metal babybed when it was deemed unsafe (23) years ago. I put one end at each end of my farthest 20' raised bed in my back garden. It's my Iris Bed. Last summer I made it to the iris sale in OKC and added some new blood in the bed. This bed is in front of 15 or so peonies under the fence line of the cow lane. And then my asparagus bed continues down the fence line. I've had so many volunteer asparagus plants spring up that I'm making another row of asparagus.

Lisa, if I make it to the Spring Fling I'd love to have some of your beautiful white irises.

Patti, agree. . . asparagus fern is awesome! I use it every year.