Sow Perennials from Seed Now for Spring Flowers

It's one of my favorite gardening times of the year when I take all the lists, gardening articles and advice I've collected from fellow gardeners during this growing season and I begin to plot my spring and summer garden for next year. Now is the time to begin that planning process because now is the time you have to sow some perennial seeds so that you have spring and summer plants.

There are many perennials that can be just grown from seed that you sow in the ground directly. You can sow perennial seeds in the spring after danger of frost has passed, or you can give them a head start and do what I do, sow my new perennial seeds in the fall.

Cleaning up the garden and finding new areas to grown perennial flowers is one of the most enjoyable garden tasks of the year. You know fall and winter are coming and the garden will be cold and frozen here in the Midwest, but underneath the snow and cold lurks the heart of spring and you can plant it there with a wide choice of perennial seeds to choose from. And they're so inexpensive. For just pennies you can have entire flower beds full of summer rainbows.

Where to find perennial seeds to sow

A packet of seed will often have 50 to 100 seeds in it and if you don't need that many, share with a friend if purchasing or as your garden skills increase, save your own seeds and collect and share them with other gardeners. If you'd like to collect seeds, now is the time to really begin harvesting flower heads and seeds, although many have already drifted away into the wind. I always set aside manila envelopes to collect seed and store it in a garden file. (read how to do that here) for when I'm ready to sow new seed in the fall or spring.

Some of my favorite perennials to plant from seed in the fall include the following

Veronica Nestor

Veronica Nestor is a 6-inch ground cover that has masses of ½ inch sky blue blooms. Blue is always one of the gardens most sought after colors, and Veronica Nestor provides a luxiorous blue carpet of color that begins in the spring and extends into early summer. Often if you shear it back right after it finishes flowering, you can trick it into reblooming in the late summer. While Veronica trails about easily and will even naturalize itself (come up on its own each year), it never invasive, more of a gentle meander is the speed of Veronica, so you can easily remove it from an area where you don't want "Nestor" traveling too.

It's great for rock gardens and sunny borders, prefers rather dry soil to slightly wet and needs good drainage to flourish. It also makes a wonderful container plant, flowing out over the edge of pots and planters. Hardy for zones 4-8 and available from most seed catalog companies.

Coreopsis

Coreopsis is one of my favorite spring flowers and I often plant Veronica Nestor in front of my sunny yellow coreopsis. There are several versions of this popular perennial but I like a variety that grows about 18 inches tall with larger blossoms. Park Seed has a variety of this perennial called Coreopsis Early Sunrise that has a double 2 inch bloom. I can't wait to try this perennial seed in my fall sowing plans. I'm saving some back for spring seeding just in case it doesn't come up on its own in the spring!

This is a hardy little perennial, which blooms in early summer and backs a pefect sunny backdrop for shorter perennials Lerber Daisies with coreospsis behind them. It blooms from summer through the first frost. You want a lot of bloom for your buck with perennials and this is a perennial variety that provides a lovely amount of bloomage! It's a mid height perennial that does well in front of larger Shasta Daisies or Coneflowers or tall lilies and shrubs.

Fox glove

My favorite Foxglove is The Rare Yellow Foxglove sold by Park Seeds. I like it because it is a true perennial unlike other varieties of foxglove which are short lived biennials. They're pretty for two years and then die off! This foxglove has a buttery yellow cup, atop 2 to 3 foot spikes of stem, with a cheerful persimmon red insides. It's adorable! Foxglove blooms move upward on the stalk, with the lower buds opening first and gradually opening up the rest of the spike with the stalk being full of bloom color for about 3 to 4 weeks in midsummer. It has an attractive foliage that remains green for most of the growing season.

It is easily grown from seed that you sow in the fall or spring and will return for many years on its own to grace your sunny to partially shaded garden bed. While it isn't too fussy of a plant, it prefers rich, moist soil and needs about 12 to 18 inches space in the border or bed. Thrives in zones 3-8, needs more sun in zones 8 or 9.

For me no perennial garden is complete without daisies. I have several that I like but two do really well grown from perennial seeds that are sown in the fall, Gloriosa, Shasta and Paper Daisies. Don't you love the names!

Shasta Daisy

I've grown Shasta daisies for years, partly because I just love the color and summery appeal of them. They were my wedding bouquet flowers, but also because they are a prolific bloomer! 2 ½ daisy blossoms on 3 feet high plants with a lovely leafy dark green foliage, bloom all season long. Just keep cutting them for arrangements, they'll keep producing until frost. They are great for pots, beds, baskets, wherever you want to stick some sunny white and yellow brightness.

They truly are a magnficient plant. Sow up to 2 months before the first frost, so start planting right now, in late August or mid Sepember. You can also start indoors and transplant outside next sprng. They will self seed the following year and for several years after that. They do have a tendency to need resowing and so I collect the seed and continue to add new seed to my daisy beds in the spring and summer. They like full sun, but aren't particularly fussy about their soil type. Another good reasons to grow them!

Gloriosa Daisies

Gloriosa is the largest daisy bloom I've ever seen, 7 inches across is common, with each bloom different in color variations in an autumn hue range, yellows, reds, oranges, rust, all blended with every flower completely different than the one beside it! Plant a lot of these! They are the kind of plant in your garden that people will stop and stare at when they drive by. They're incredibly beautiful and show stopping, well, maybe I mean carstopping!

They are strong, vigorous and compact with about 2 ft tall and 12 to 15 inches wide. They begin blooming in late spring, in my region around end of May, first of June and then continue into late August, early September. You will want to space them apart to allow air circulation to prevent leaf rust and disease. This is what the catalog says and I can attest to that.

When I sow seeds in the ground in the fall, I then go back in the summer and space out what comes up, pulling, and transplanting as needed to space the plant for best growth. You'll get to know what your plants need as you get to know them! I love this Gloriosa daisy in a vase and it's part of my cutting garden.

A Rainbow of Paper Daisies

My husband gave me paper daisies for Mother's Day one year and I've been hooked every since. The colors are reminiscent of zinnias but even more subtle and varied. These bloom in early summer and just keep blooming until fall, with salmon, apricot, rose, magenta, white and everyone of them with a sweet yellow face in the center. They are a warm, warm addition to the garden and look wonderful against greens and shrubbery.

And better yet, when you cut them and bring them in, you can hang them upside down in a dry location and they will dry almost in the same shade..just a bit muted and dulled, to use in wreaths. Paper daisies are what I use in making late summer wreaths with my baby's breath and tiny roses tucked in.

Whether you are an experienced gardener or novice, sow some perennial seeds in the fall for spring and summer beauty next year!