Beginner help - plants that seed

[Baxdream]

I visited a friends beautiful garden and naturally I asked how they managed it.
The main tip was to buy plants that you can get seeds from, dry them out and then plant the following year.
I have a lovely south facing garden- I have roses, hydrangeas, peonies, dahlias and alliums.

I'm looking for low colourful plants and some medium height. Where do I start?!

I’d suggest looking up annual flowering plants that you already like, to check if they self-seed. Self-seeding plants are easier for a beginner gardener. Seed collection can be disheartening if you end up not being able to germinate many.

Alyssum, petunias, cosmos, love in a mist, and true forget me nots are good self-seeders. Lobelias will in the right conditions. Cynoglossum forget me nots are almost too good!

French marigolds and sweet peas are easy to collect and fairly reliable about germinating.

It’s not just seeds but some plants are so easy to grow from cuttings! Nepeta walkers low is my go to filler plant. Very robust and easily chopped back- very long flowering and cuttings take so easily- or you can split it. Im also south facing in sandy well drained soil so it will depend on the type of soil to recommend. I also like diascia, the little low phloxes, I use Allchemilla mollis a lot. All easy to split or take cuttings. Mid storey lupins are great, foxgloves in shady places, aquilegia spreads (a bit too much for me) but is easy. Rudbeckia also spreads very easily (Goldstrum) snd lychnis self seeds everywhere but is pretty. You could also try some of the fancier poppies - the oriental ones. If you visit the nursery, buy stuff that looks good but do that in each season- you don’t want everything all at once then nothing to look at afterwards. Hope that helps!

This is fantastic, thank you so much! We have clay soil, but our soil is very good due to the previous owner loving the garden when she lived here.
I'll look up some of these and visit the nursery, thank you

They had lots of lupine and foxglove so that's good to see as they're beautiful

Yes absolutely re cuttings - you could ask your friend for cuttings of their plants - perennial, woody types (like hydrangeas - you can’t have too many!) work best. You need two sets of leaf nodes on a twig or stalk. The lower set goes into the seed raising mix to sprout roots. But roses are mostly not suitable for cuttings, despite the multiple websites suggesting that they are.

Nasturtiums are another plant with seeds that are easy to collect and germinate.

Not self seeding plants but easy to divide and use as fillers after a season or two. Look at easy and hardy herbaceous plants like geraniums ( not the pelargonium geraniums) they clump up well, are easy to divide if you want more of the same or they get too big for the space. If you cut them back after their first flowering you usually get a second growth and more flowers. Lots of different colours and various leaves to choose. Also salvias and penstemon, again lots of amazing colours, check for hardiness, some are stronger than others.. I would also plant perennial wallflowers and hellebores for spring , Japanese anemones for summer/ autumn and those big sedum for autumn bee pollen . The self seeders mentioned up thread would happily find themselves spaces between your herbaceous plants. Nearly forgot, I find cyclamen seed themselves about if they are happy and established, the joy is you always forget about them until you see the flowers, always a surprise.

I visited a garden today that had bright welsh poppies running through, they apparently seed everywhere but are a lovely sharp yellow.

Lots of lovely ideas here. Cosmos can self sees too especially on sandy soil.
My favourite new discovery is sowing fresh primrose seeds around now. The lovely pale yellow ones like in the wild. They'll have seed pods and some will have clusters of sticky green seeds inside which can be spread on a tray of compost. Cant have too many primroses.

Oh, verbena bonariensis is good too.

Your garden sounds lovely- they are some of my favourite flowers! Sweet rocket, nigella, foxgloves and orlaya grandiflora have done well in my garden, and will complement what you already have planted. I didn't even bother to collect the seeds! They've all just self seeded quite happily.

Thank you! I had a great time getting some of your recommendations and have planted them. Fingers crossed I keep them alive!
My roses are looking fabulous this year (2 years old). Lots of blooms ❤️