Annuals: “Self seeding everywhere”

[Siameasy]

Many annuals are reputed to “self seed everywhere” but in reality not all do despite some having a reputation

Are insects eating the seeds or what!?

Which annuals have self seeded in your garden and which never have?

Yes:
Ox Eye Daisy
Red Poppy
Fox and Cubs
Verbena - not an annual
Valerian - not an annual
California Poppy

No:
Corn Flower
Calendula
Vipers Bugloss
Corn Marigold (in olden times you would be fined a pig if you let this grow. Yet it struggles in my garden)
Corn Cockle
Borage

Nemesia, the candy variety not the vanilla sadly. Poppies.

That made me chuckle @BobTheDuvet

My paving is full of mimulus and lobelia, self sown from last year. I love the way plants choose to seed where they want to grow.
I never have any luck with poppies. Next doors garden has loads.

Yes:

Forget me nots, year after year.
Foxgloves - intermittently, never sown any.
Aquilegia - intermittent from seeds sown about 10 years ago.
Alchemilla moly - again, sown 10+ tears ago and has spread.
Cosmos - masses the year after sowing but none since.
Borage - sometimes starts in autumn and gets killed by frost, just reappeared now.
Nasturtiums - only for a year or two after sowing.
California poppies - huge success the year after sowing, nothing since.

Annuals need ground clear enough to germinate and the young plants to grow. That's why they used to be cornfield weeds and aren't usually found in permanent grass - they're not hay-meadow plants.

Out of your list - ox-eye daisy is always taken by slugs in my garden. It's actually a perennial, as is fox-and-cubs.

My avid self-seeders (perennial and annual) are:

Dog violet
Aquilegia
Welsh poppy (Meconopsis cambrica)
Love-in-a-mist
Lavender
Mullein (Viburnum thapsus)
Caper spurge (Euphorbia lathyris)
Foxgloves
Forget-me-nots

And holly trees

Interesting Mere so are my Ox-eyes spreading by “rhizomes”? Weird how slugs have regional tastes - or maybe plants taste different depending on region. Slugs here don’t touch them.
I wish I had a Fox glove!
An aquilegia has self seeded here and yes I forgot Nigella, totally bomb proof!

So I think yes Fox and Cubs has spread by roots actually as I just went out and inspected it. But it has a seed head like a dandelion. It’s a lovely plant, less known here.

I love the way plants choose to seed where they want to grow.
I never have any luck with poppies. Next doors garden has loads.

I know-I love it too! I always think “why there?”. I’ve noticed for instance a Salsify growing like mad about 500m from here. I collected seed and grew some in a pot but it was all leaves, even when I transplanted it. But surely the soil type is the same?!

Borage grows well here but never self seeds. I’m hoping if I leave my Honesty it will Bob, presumably the seeds aren’t tasty to bugs?
A ragged robin turned up in a boggy old soil-filled trug. What a treat!

Soil type isn't necessarily the same - my allotment site is approx 500m from home but higher up a hill and on totally different soil.

Interesting Mere so are my Ox-eyes spreading by “rhizomes”? Probably both seeds and rhizomes. Annuals can only really reproduce by seed, since they have to germinate, grow, produce flower and seed all in one season. Perennials can spread either by seed or vegetatively - some rely more on one than the other. Vegetative reproduction covers ground quickly, but gives plants that are genetically identical to the parent, and therefore vulnerable to changes in conditions. Seed production usually involves exchange of genetic material with another plant, therefore a greater chance that, should conditions change, some of the offspring will be able to take advantage of the new conditions.

So I think yes Fox and Cubs has spread by roots actually as I just went out and inspected it. But it has a seed head like a dandelion. Yes, vegetative propagation for quick ground covering growth, seed to drift away and establish new territory.

Dandelion is even weirder - it is apomictic - ie it produces seeds without being pollinated, so the seedlings are genetically identical to the parent. But every so often there's a random mutation, and if the mutated plant grows and produces seeds, the seedlings all have the mutation and so are a different micro-species from the original plant. What we think of as dandelion has got over 200 different species

Salsify ... I collected seed and grew some in a pot but it was all leaves, even when I transplanted it. Isn't salsify biennial? Year 1, germinate, manufacture food, store it in root, Year 2, use food in root to produce tall flower stem and flowers. So you would just get leaves in the first year.

I do the same Bob I’m also interfering. What colours have you got? I’ve a purple one from some seeds I collected and white from seeds I bought.

I didn’t think of it being a biennial Mere. I love the flowers so much (and Goat’s Beard) and hoped to try the root. Thanks for your information about how the plants spread - I am even more in awe of plants now!