1st June - what seeds can I sow today to get flowers this year?

[curlywillow]

I have big gaps in the garden and I need to fill them out. is it too late to sow some annuals straight into the borders to hopefully fill some space and give some colour?

I’d like to know this too

Zinnias

Realistically none, I start my seeds off march,north facing kitchen window sill (which people assure me on a well known garden forum doesn't work,) I think bite the bullet this year,buy a few plants, Tesco have a great selection, cheap,big enough that the slugs will leave them alone.

Nasturtiums fulfill both your requirements !

I don't bother with direct sowing anything anymore, because of cats, mice, birds, slugs and snails.

Its less of a case of bothering with it though and more a case of being too late to go back to march so its worth a try in the hope some germinate

I will get some zinnia seeds and nasturtiums. My Grandma always had a veg patch full of nasturtiums.

I tried nasturtiums last year but they got eaten by little black bugs.I have several packets of seeds including Californian poppy, love in the mist and calendula so will try just sowing them and see what happens

I think thats often what they are used for isn't it? My grandma had them in her veg patch as sacrificial offerings

Sunflowers

Try a packet of “mixed annuals” or even “wildflower” seeds. They’re only just beginning to germinate around here.

I recently started swine Sweet peas and they have rapidly grown in a short time.

Not flowers this year, but could you use the space to sow some biennial seeds like wallflowers, foxgloves, hollyhocks? They'll develop this year to fill your gaps, die down a bit over winter and then next year you'll have flowers. The wallflowers will flower really early in the year and have a lovely scent.

Using this year's gaps could set you up some great store for the future.

These flowers will self seed all over the place so you never really need to sow them twice - you could do other ones next year and build up a real stock.

Also stops all the expense/plastic/paying for postage etc of getting plug plants year after year.

I'm always amazed how cheap it is to buy biennial seeds (£3 ish a packet with hundreds of seeds in) and how expensive it is to buy one biennial plant. One foxglove plant in a pot costs more than a packet of seeds.

Definitely zinnas and nasturtiums. I started some nasturtiums in early July last year and they flowered by the end of August.

You could have a go with sunflowers, poppies and calendula, they should flower by the end of the season if we get a warm autumn.

You can get nasturtiums in lots of lovely colours now from creamy white right thorough to bright pink and burgundy. And you can eat the flowers and the seeds they make.

Right I've raided DMs seed box and I have:

zinnia polar bear
Zinnia Dahlia mixed
poppy papaver
nasturtium dwarf bushy mix
sea lavendar
strawflowers
hollyhock chaters white
borage

Worth sowing these?

What about Poppies? They grow quickly and don’t need any care.

Sow them and report back!

I also have some foxglove seeds for flowers next year

Foxgloves are gorgeous !
We have Love in the Mist ( nigella ) springing up everywhere at the moment , just from scattering seed heads in the borders last year .

I showed some cosmos and petunia seeds on Monday and one lot is already through. (dunno which as I didn't label the pots) I picked up the idea from another thread on here.

I sowed some zinnia today and some mixed annuals, and some lemon balm (inna pot, not making that mistake again), and some dill!

Mostly seeds I got free or had loads of so worth a punt.

Nigella. Marigolds.

I sowed zinnias 2 weeks ago and they are nearly caught up with the ones I sowed 6 weeks ago.

I have just sown Allysum Odoratum, and will do another sowing of nasturtiums and sunflowers sometime next week to fill gaps.

Oh super good to know I can still sow sunflowers, mine have all been eaten by slugs. As were my zinnias.