Ah, yes...the flats. Those have really fallen to the wayside, haven't they? The trend toward larger pots of things and pre-planted planters/baskets started quite some time ago, maybe 20-ish years now? But over that time harder and harder to find flats. Around here can still find begonias, impatiens, alyssum, marigolds, petunias and maybe a few other things in flats, but only at certain nurseries -- most nurseries' ideas of "flats" around here is a 6-pack of super-sized plants. Container gardening is where it's at now. I guess I can kind of see why. "Bedding out" isn't as popular as it used to be, and the population as a whole is getting older with less physical ability to plant great quantities of annuals as in the past.

Do you grow from seed? You should be able to easily find seeds for both alyssum and tall and short cultivars of ageratum.

I agree — it’s been ages since I’ve grown things like ageratum and sweet alyssum!

One I really miss is Asters. I bought seed that was called Astoria Mix and they were *perfect* cutting flowers in white, purple, lavender, and various pinks. They self-sowed for ages and then I somehow managed to lose them without having saved seed. :(

I miss my Scarlet Sage. They germinate later on like about now. I havw some seeds tucked away jyst in case. Are you familiar with the perennial Blue Mistflower, Conoclinium coelistinum? They would be much more dependable than the frail annual Ageratum houstoinianum. Conoclinium is vigorous and agressive but it's a breeze to thin out. Down south lots of people grow the related Gregg's Mistflower that has attractive foliage.

"Are you familiar with the perennial Blue Mistflower, Conoclinium coelistinum?"

Yes. I planted it in my meadow. It's beautiful. It doesn't bloom until fall, though, and certainly not all summer like the "annual" ageratum, so it's not a substitution IMO.

I miss cleomes, zinnias, chrysanthemum's cup&saucer vines, and ageratums.

In my early days of grdening I grew a lot of my annuals and perennials . So many were so different not available in stores or nurseries. & oh and chocolate coreopsis. and pots full of different varietiesie ties of geraniums grown from cuttings . I have down sized the last few years, my garden out grew me . and became too much.

I wonder how many mature gardeners have started to downsize their gardens the last few years ?

I still get cleome and alyssum reseeding. I remember the good ole' days when I traded seeds and did winter sowing and grew as many annuals, herbs and veggies that I could from seed started under lights and timed for the growing season. I used to have cosmos that also reseeded but the next generations became more and more inferior until I pulled them all out. I intended to sow new seed, but never did. I grew California poppies in an antique white that still come back a few every season. I had great success with pots of Four OClocks one year and tried them about 6 times after that and never had that success again. I would always have a morning glory and they would reseed, but I haven't seen one in awhile.

I did grown ageratum 'Blue Mink' and that is such a pretty powder blue. And I like the taller ageratum. I haven't seen plants available in nurseries so I guess you'd have to find the seed. I got mine in a trade a long time ago. I did Sunflowers one summer, that was fun but not something that works for me every season.

We have only a couple of local nurseries that offer actual 6 packs. The bigger commercial nurseries all offer the 4" pots for $6 -$8? And those larger 4 packs that are outrageous - $16.? at one local nursery.

I love Ageratum ’Blue Horizon.’ I grow it from seed each year. I miss Browalia that I grew in PA. I doesn’t like my dry sandy Maryland soil. I also miss Cosmos. I just don’t have good luck with them here and have given up on them. In general, my new bed have lots of annuals abd then as the perennials get larger and more established, there is less room for annuals and I find myself missing them.

I miss TONS of annuals! I used to sell bouquets at a few local farmers markets and grew lots of annuals. I continued doing so for a few years after I stopped selling, but it just got to be too much work and I no longer had the time. I will never be without my cosmos and zinnias, but I miss so many others - celosia (soo many kinds!), gomphrena, Chinese asters (although I never had super great success with them anyway, but what I had were gorgeous!), statice, nigella and larkspur (still have remnants in my garden from reseeding but don't actively grow and I also reluctantly rip them out if they're in the way of other things). Euphorbia, snapdragons, sunflowers, cleome, bupleurum, bachelor's buttons, calendula (still grow occasionally), strawflowers.... my goodness how did I grow so much lol?

I do try to grow one of these every year or so - this year I threw a few strawflower seeds in my wintersowing containers - but I do miss having such a variety of annuals in my garden like I used to.

Markay, same here. I am trying to change over to more shrub-based gardening, and as my little shrubs get bigger and bigger, I have less room for annuals. I mean, the whole reason I am doing the shrubs is for less work and lower maintenance, which of course having fewer annuals fits right in with lol, but I do miss the flowers, even if I don't miss the work of growing, transplanting, and maintaining them! And truth be told, it's not the work of it all I mind, but I just don't have the time to do all that work any more!

:)

Dee

I used to grow a whole bunch of 'old fashioned' annuals such as godetia, vaccaria, calendulas, flax, centaureas, gypsophila, statice, larkspur, poppies, scabious, gillia, annual chrysanthemum, orlaya (I am not dissimilar to Dee, I think) when I was an avid seed sower, but these days, I grow a few cosmos and rely on the ever-present self seeders to fill the gaps between perennials. I no longer add plants to my allotment plot...just edit out the vigorous volunteers...some of which have assumed the status of rampaging weeds (nigella, leucanthemum, hesperis and lunaria).

I also do biennials because I like a bit of summer seed sowing, when I can maintain a coupla nursery beds instead of the zillion stressed pots, (although I have not had to sow a sweet william for years). Would never be without wallflowers or foxgloves...even though the latter has a torrid time on my hot, sunny and sandy plot, some of the perennial species do really very well indeed.