What can you grow easily from seed - annuals and perennials?

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

New garden, new to gardening! At the minute I'm trying to grow nasturtiums, sweet peas and phlox from seed. What are my chances of success? (As a kid I tried growing nasturtiums, sweet peas and zinnias and only the nasturtiums came up). And what other things could I try that are easy? I've got a virtually empty garden that I need to fill up, so I'd like to grow some perennials as well as annuals (have already bought some foxglove seeds).

[Dawnywoo]

For things that will flower this year, Nasturtiums are good. Otherwise, Cornflowers and Candytuft are my absolute failsafe favourites.

Good luck!

[cantspel]

nasturtiums are a dead cert to grow, sweet peas and phlox not so good.

Sunflowers tend to grow well along with marigolds, Antirrhinum and pansies.

Do you have a friend with a garden where you could take a few cuttings from shrubs and hardy perennials?

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

The sweet peas and the nasturtiums have come up!

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Excellent!

Other things that are easy from seed are nigella, clarkia and godetia.

[NotAnotherNewNappy]

Poppies! Easy peasy from seed.

[MoominMammasHandbag]

My personal favourites from seeds are cosmos. I have had good results just planting them straight into the garden.

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

Have now planted some larkspur, aquilegia, poppy, cornflower, shasta daisy, candytuft and cosmos seeds straight into the garden, and some sunflower seeds in a tray, will let you know how it goes! Thank you for your suggestions.

[Pannacotta]

Agree with COsmos, dead easy to grow and flower for months, esp if you cut them for indoors.

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

There are now two tiny shoots in my phlox tray! And lots of seedlings coming up in the garden, but it's too early to tell what they are.

[happyreindeer]

Night scented stock and virginia stock.

[Pasanna]

Cornflowers, zinnia, larkspur, cosmos, giant harebells, French marigolds, morning glory, nigella. Never ever been able to grow delphiniums from seed much to my regret.

[MumOfTheMoos]

Calendula officianalis - marigolds - these are the nice single pealed tall ones - not the squat dark orange ones you find in the middle of roundabouts or park flower beds - there's a lovely almost apricot flowered one

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

Thank you everybody, have added some antirrhinum seeds and will be trying some of the rest of these suggestions out next year.

More phlox seedlings came up but then they all died so the phlox is officially A Failure.

Have been able to identify some of the seedlings in the garden as cosmos. They're doing ok, though the cats keep rolling on them.

Am also now, at DS's insistence, trying to grow sweetcorn, pumpkins and tomatoes from seed in growbags. So far only the sweetcorn has come up.

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

Pumpkins and tomatoes now up!

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

My nasturtiums are flowering

[catwithflowers]

I live by the coast and the bloody seagulls keep eating my cosmos . Luckily, I had loads of seedlings but its so frustrating! I also have pumpkins which are in grow bags and are growing like triffids, loads of tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers and lots of different herbs. Oh and nasturtiums too

It's so exciting, isn't it?!!!

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

It is exciting. I'd like to have some herbs, maybe next year (I tried a small herb garden at my old house and found a.) that the cats made a beeline for it to use as a toilet and b.) the sage I grew did very well, to the point of strangling all the other plants).

I now also have one solitary cornflower and a few candytufts. The cosmos have grown quite big but no sign of flowers yet (I feel they have to flower to be considered a success).

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

P.S. There are five big sunflower plants too, not flowering as yet.

[LindaDonahue]

watever u grow, just take a gd care of them, and they wil love u back by smiling at u daily.. :-)

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

The pumpkin and tomato growbags were starting to look quite crowded so we've just transplanted all of the tomatoes and most of the pumpkins into pots. The pumpkins in pots we've tied to canes - apparently they will grow upwards if you do this and when the actual pumpkins appear you can support them in nets - whilst the ones in the growbag we're going to leave to continue growing out sideways. Will be interesting to see which do better. After initially wilting the potted ones are looking very happy and some have even flowered - funny orangey-yellow flowers. They are very triffid-y.

The sweet peas have finally produced a few flowers but they've very sorry-looking. I think the soil in the garden is not good quality - we didn't mulch it in the spring because I didn't know we had to (or even what mulching is!). The last few months have been a steep learning curve as far as gardening is concerned. Also we have what we think is a russian vine growing along the top of the fence (it grows voraciously, we've pruned it half a dozen times this year already) and I didn't realise the extent to which this shades the plants beneath it. They do get full sun for part of the day but for much of the day they're in dappled shade. Next year I'm going to do something completely different in this part of the garden - maybe a fernery.

Still awaiting flowers on the cosmos.

The nasturtiums I divided between pots and the garden. Initially the ones in the pots did better, producing some beautiful flowers, but then they went stringy and got black fly. Now they're all but dead whilst the ones planted in the garden are going from strength to strength, even the ones I put under our pine tree (I read on here that they're good for that dusty dry spot you get under a pine tree).

Ooh, and have planted those foxglove seeds. Dozens of seedlings have come up in spite of the fact our two kittens keep sitting in the seed trays .

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

Sorry, they're very sorry-looking.

[loraflora]

Get some catmint (nepeta) and your kittens will roll around on that instead!

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

A single cosmos flower and a green pumpkin the size of a large orange have appeared.

The tomatoes are big and green and healthy-looking but no sign of any actual fruit. DP has moved some of them into the conservatory and is now 'keeping a close eye on them', whatever that means, in the hope of triggering some fruit.

[Bearleigh]

Sleepy how did it go? (My direct-sown annuals didn't do too well this year as it was so cold early on and then dry at flowering time and I started watering a bit late.)

[SleepyCatOnTheMat]

The cosmos finally have a splattering of pink and pink-purple flowers on them, and a sunflower has appeared! Too late unfortunately for the local gardening club annual show, which had a 'Largest Sunflower' category and was at the end of August - I promised DS we would enter it if possible. Oh well, maybe next year... (I'm thinking about investing in one of those pop-up greenhouses).

The indoor tomatoes have several small green fruits on them - I'm guessing due to the move inside rather than DP's ministrations! There remains no sign of fruit on the outdoor tomatoes.

Half a dozen of the pumpkins now have green fruits on them of various sizes. None is bigger than a small grapefruit.

The sweetcorn has gotten very tall and has these sort of seed heads on it (like you get on grass) but no corns as yet.