Seeds to sow directly into borders

[MorelloKisses]

Hello, was wondering if anyone could suggest some seeds that can be sown straight into my borders.

I'm sheltered, in London, good soil (I think because of our fruit trees but also I work compost in) one east facing border with about 3-4 hours direct sun a day, another west facing with 6 ish hours.

Thanks

Cerinthe is beautiful, I love calendula in a bronze colour, nasturtiums, cornflower, poppies. They are all annuals but might self seed if happy. Foxgloves can be sown now to flower next year.

Poppies, but give it a good forking. Some poppies only grow in freshly turned soil

thank you

do you know of anything with white flowers? (foxgloves noted)

I find cerinthe and foxglove need to be brought on in pots - I've never been able to sow them direct! (Though this may just be me).

I think you're wise to think about colour - direct sow annuals do not need to look like an explosion in a smarties factory! How about Californian poppies - Eschscholzia californica - they don't have to be orange, but also come in lovely shades of cream and peach with really gorgeous silver foliage. Nigella look lovely - I really like some of the deeper purples they produce. Nasturtiums can be really vivid orange, but you can also get more subtle colours, like 'whirlybird cream' or 'cream troika'. You can then grow some opium poppies (papaver) for higher, more fro-frou flowers: check out 'Violetta blush'. The humble poached egg plant (limnanthes) is white, and a really cheery little addition to the garden.

Just a word of caution on poached egg plants, while they are relatively easy to weed out, they self seed prolifically in my garden! But the pollinating insects love them.

Cerinthe self seed everywhere on my damp, cold, clay allotment - can't get them to grow in my lovely sheltered back garden! I'll try them in pots first this year thank you for the tip.

Looking at lovely white varieties is a good idea. There's some classy stuff out there. Night scented stocks aren't very showy, but are easy to grow and smell lovely.