A flower border from seed

Yesterday I described a new border in which 95% of the plants were bought seeds sown in March of this year and reached full flower by the summer. None of the plants were particularly unusual and are commonly available. This didn't matter because it was the overall effect that was important. 

There were two established perennials that were planted and could be considered feature plants. These were bold leaved hostas. I sowed some perennials which you can expect to flower in their first summer. This included verbena bonariensis and rudbeckia goldstrum.  I planted a hardy fuchsia, fuchsia genii for its golden leaves and red and purple flowers. Some summer flowering bulbs were also added. These included the deep red crocosmia lucifer, the red and white gladioli belinda which grows  to 2 feet and has relatively small flowers. 

One problem if you are sowing annuals with a colour scheme in mind is that many annuals are packed as mixed varieties. That's alright if the aim is to produce a 'riot of colour' but not if blocks of colour are required. This means searching out specific named varieties - a bit more expensive but worth searching for. Here is an incomplete list:-

Clarkia elegans

Cosmos 'gazebo red'

Cosmos 'sonata white'

chrysanthemum 'eastern star'

Calendula nova

Zinnia 'purple prince'

Nasturtium peach melba

Nasturtium 'india red'

Ageratum 'blue ball'

Marigold 'kees orange'

Nicotiana sylvestris

Antirrhinum 'appleblossom'

Antirrhinum 'chantilly white'

Ricinus Gibsonii

Nicotiana sylvestris, 4' high and in full
flower in July having been sown in March