Any seeds I can plant that will flower this year?

[Batsypatsy]

I'm moving in a week and will have a small yard with not much sun. I'd like to plant pots but on a budget. Is there anything I can plant that will flower this year?

I've tried nasturtiums before but they barely flowered because they became covered in black fly and I can't spray because my cats chew things in the garden.

Just looking for something cheap and cheerful.

Not buddleia - they grow everywhere here .. in the walls etc.

I'll look out for the others, but they may be a bit expensive.

Wild flowers

If you have a Morrison’s nearby their bedding plants are really good quality and cheap. They are on offer at the moment 2 tray for £3 and they have a good selection of geraniums in white, red and pink. All will do fine in shade and they are quite forgiving if the pots dry out a bit. Some cheap tomato feed from wilkos makes a good cheap feed for them through the summer as well.

Begonias also do well in shade and can be bought quite cheaply and will have a long flowering time so will give a good display right through summer.

For overwintering and spring flowers -Forget me knots do well in shade .And lamium of course .
Both are happy in continers ,

Have you any friends with gardens? Keen gardeners sometimes have bits of plants that they can divide and give away. Also school Summer fairs often have plant stalls, selling plants cheaply.

Thanks for the tip Dontsweat, I'll try Morrisons, that's a great price.

Sadly no friends with gardens nearby.

I love forget-me-nots, I'll try them too.

Forget-me-nots are a good investment- they should self seed, and provide early cover and colour before the tender plug plants take over.

Honesty too, perhaps?

I was just buying a few bits on jparkers when I came across this offer

www.jparkers.co.uk/begonia-apricot-shades-enhanced-maxi-plugs-0006775c

More begonias than I need but if you have a whole garden of pots to do 66 plants will go along way.

They have a few other offers on as well just look at their lastest offers section.

Thanks I'll have a look.

They have geraniums in the same offer

I do t know why forget me nots have been suggested, they are biennial!
So flowers in the second year.

Unless you get the native water forget me not which is perennial and flowers every year but needs consistently wet soil

Thanks doggy, not much good to me then.

Fuschias are nice though, they flower in shade.
Get a hardy one with a long flowering time, I have just bought ‘Alice hoffman’ which allegedly flowers from May to September.

Right about the forget me knots but if you bought a pot in flower now and stuck them in they will self seed and give some foliage over the winter and flowers next year .

Very good value .But I guess if you are limiting yourself to flowers this summer then by all means pass .

Is there any point getting a hardy fuschia if the OP only wants plants that will flower this summer ?

It’s just that the OP stated flowers this year, which forget me nots don’t.
If OP bought a packet she’d then be disappointed if she was expecting flowers, that’s all.
She could get a pot in flower though yes.

I suggested fuschia because it likes shade, it’s cheap, comes back every year (if you get a hardy one) and flowers for a long time and I just assumed the OP would like a long display of flowers.

But not a seed is it ?Much like a pot of forget me knots which flower in my garden for months .

Oh my lord, they are just flowers.
Its not worth getting this worked up over.

For what it is worth I like forget me nots too, as far as I could see there was no mention of getting forget me not plants, they are freely available as seeds, OP asked for flower seeds, I was just thinking that if she bought a packet of forget me not seeds because they were recommended she would then be really disappointed to get no flowers as they are biennial plants.

I have never seen fuschia seeds on sale, only potted fuschia plants and they usually flower first year of planting.

If OP wants flowers this year then a packet of forget me not seeds will not do what she wants.
But yes she could, and might yet, go and buy a forget me not plant.

I was just thinking seeds because they're cheap. I'm open to plants toi, just need to keep the cost down. I just want some colour to brighten up the yard at low cost.

I was thinking of plants when I said forget-me-nots are a good investment - I seem to remember getting a plant or two cheaply years ago, never buying any more and now have loads. The honesty I had from a friend and again, self seeds abundantly. I'll add foxgloves in the same vein - biennials but I've never had any luck with packets of seeds, only with self-seeded from plants.

The thing is with gardening, you surely don't just want colour this year, so thinking about what will spread itself around from plants this year may be wise long term. Bedding plant plugs are great for instant colour this year - but if that's all you do you'll be back to square one next year. The sorts of plants I've mentioned (add aquilegia...) are often not expensive and may be possible to get seedlings from friends or market stalls etc.

at the forget-me-not debate

I love them and have them all over my flowerbeds but they have a habit of spreading everywhere (including the lawn)!

Are you planting in flowerbeds OP or mainly planters/pots?

Getting back to seeds, have we had poached egg plants and nigella yet? They will flower this year but may also self seed for bonus next year.

Yes definitely need colour in years to come too.

There's a very small flower bed (not deep and full of rubbish) but otherwise will be pots.

I like pots. It may be a bit late this year but I always have a couple of pots of scented lilies which sit somewhere unobtrusive and then get moved near a door when they're flowering.