I grow a selection of annuals in the caryophyllaceae family - silene, vaccaria, viscaria and gypsophila. I am not always clear about the botnical differences in these airy, seed grown flowers, but always try to add a couple of varieties every year as bouquet fillers and fast-growing additions in the perennial beds. There is a blue viscaria - 'Blue Angel' which I will be growing this year, along with a deep pink gypsophila 'Kermesina'. All do well when direct sown and are easily added to any existing gaps.

I generally try to grow some annual phlox too, porkchop. There is a blue selection called 'Moody Blue' and another variety called 'Sugar Stars' which are more amenable to sowing in modules for a later transplanting. Have also grown the wittily named 'Phlox of Sheep'.

I agree - these lovely, oldfashioned varieties of annuals are really only available as seeds - I always thought no-one would pay for short-lived annual plants, back when I had fond ambitions to raise and sell such plants...but the enormous success of vegetable plug plants and bedding plants has convinced me that there would be a niche in the market for a UK version of Annies Annuals - selling exactly those familiar, but overlooked plants such as flax, nasturtiums, centaurea, orlaya, godetia, lavatera, nemophila, phlox, linaria etc.etc.

I think the scale of box store gardeners vs curious gardeners is so overwhelming that it's hard for an annual phlox to compete. Until you can get a phlox which fills a six inch pot, is lumpy and covered in bloom at sale, and blooms all summer, they're always going to be "specialty" plants.

Easy is so tempting for gardeners who are on the lazy side like myself, and to plan ahead, sow seeds, care for them, plant them out -compared to finding a few starts in May and filling a flower-saturated pot or bed in one afternoon- it's so tempting... except for the cost of course.

Would others agree that it's harder to find unusual seeds or is that just me fooling myself? Back in the day when a seed catalog would show up I'd spend hours scouring the pages and editing lists, but today clicking on webpage links just seems more tedious. Also I spend way too much time scrolling rather than sitting down with a nice seed list and of course that's all my own fault.

Sorry for wandering off topic. I did end up at a plant sale the year before last where one of the vendors had made a try at filling Campanula's niche idea for unusual annuals. I picked up some night blooming phlox, cool linaria, a couple nasturtium including a cutting grown form which I promptly killed, and a few other things. This spring I hope to at least get a few nicotina sylvestris going since they refuse to self-seed, and my fingers are crossed the Nigella I finally grew last year will reappear as well as Orlya.

"Would others agree that it's harder to find unusual seeds or is that just me fooling myself? Back in the day when a seed catalog would show up I'd spend hours scouring the pages and editing lists, but today clicking on webpage links just seems more tedious."

Oh, definitely agree with that. It is so relaxing to sit with a good catalog and thumb through the pages -- or in my case, soak in a hot bath LOL! It is tedius clicking through webpages to find if they have what I want.

I think it is harder to find more unusual seeds nowadays, so many thing have fallen out of favor. Phlox drummondi being one of them. I can find seeds of a couple colors, but unfortunately none that I want, whereas in times past there was lots of colors to choose from. Select Seeds carries heirloom varieties, if you're interested in looking there, and they do publish a catalog every year.

Suzy mentioned lavatera -- I used to grow that and enjoyed it. It didn't bloom all summer for me, though, and up here if an annual peters out after a good flush of bloom or two, they're not worth growing because our "annual season" is so short. I realize it's much different in the UK, lucky you if you can enjoy lavatera for an extended time. :0)

So much for less scrolling today... the bath would have been nicer, but I did end up at a desk with the Select Seeds site open. Apparently I need more pelargoniums, antique ones when possible.

Lavatera is awesome, the annual one is the one I'm thinking of and it also peters out for me. I think our hotter summers are part of the problem, it wants to get those seeds set before the rest of summer turns the garden into a desert or a tropical rain forest depending on the whims of our weather.

Old-fashioned snapdragons. They are the tall ones unlike most you see these days.

eta - must have been insanely bored but have deleted massively indulgent waffle. Apols. Also, fairly certain tldr applied as well.