Bachelor buttons, California poppies and four o'clocks.

Janet's Garden

Johnny Jump Up, Dahlberg Daisy and African Daisy.

{{gwi:12058}}

Sweet Alyssum! And Cosmos. The Alyssum will pop up everywhere, but it's so pretty I dont care. It provides a carpet of white all summer.

Jen

Great thread! Cosmos sulphurum, Cleome 'Queen' series, Moss Roses 'Sundial' Series, Zinnias "cut and come again" - these are smaller flowers in desert colors and they get white mildew. Very unusual and will color coordinates with a lot of home interiors.

I also have impatiens that self sow, but you gotta be careful when you first buy the mamas. Look for cell packs marked "Impatiens" with no varietal or strain name attached such as Blitz or Accent. The self sown ones are a lot shorter, too :( but hey! they come back, so who cares?

It's not my favorite, but feverfew also self sows and blooms for a good solid 6 weeks. I have it on a dry slope in the shade where nothing else (that I have) will bloom and I don't have to water.

To get the most seed out of my short plants, like moss oses and impatiens, I pull them in October before a first frost and lay them on top of the ground where I want them to be next year (may or may not be the same place they were this year) Sometimes I just pile them on top of each other, sometimes I spread them out. I leave them for 2 or 4 weeks (it's fall leaf raking time here, so it doesn't look as bad as it sounds). When I go to pick them up, I knock the plant against a garbage can lid a few times and them toss the in the can itself. I swear there must be 1000s of seeds that come out in those 2 weeks.

I want to get a lot of the things mentioned here...if anybody wants to trade, except I won't have enough impatiens, let me know. I hope others add to the list, too! Me lazy? You got it!

The winter sowing looks fun, but I can't imagine being down on my knees for days on end having to plant hundreds of little baby seedling plants! Let Ma Nature do it, sez I!

Lime

I also like self seeders! Some of these are tender perennials that will self seed for me.

Larkspur
Melampodium
Balsam
Cleome
Verbena bonariensis
Feverfew
Malva 'Zebrina'
Gomphrena
Hyssop-Korean
Perilla (BEWARE: you will have seedlings everywhere-same with morning glories here!)
Persicara 'Painter's Palette'
Salvia 'Victoria Blue'

Nigella
Verbena bonariensis
Cleome
Salvia "Forest Fire"
Salvia coccinea
Salvia splendens, Yvonne's
Snapdragons

I can't get a cosmo to reseed for the life of me...

Salvia 'Victoria Blue'
Snapdragons
Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina'
Portulaca
Sweet Alyssum
Garden balsam
Bells of Ireland (which come up EVERYWHERE!)

Tina McG

My very favorite is emilia. I first sowed this a few years back for my daughter, and I wasn't too thrilled at first. But I came to really love this little flower, and it reseeds nicely for me.

I also love portulaca and cosmos, and I like bachelors buttons too, but I keep an eye on the BB, just in case they get too wild.

:)
Dee

everybody is forgetting calendula!!

Yikes! How could I have forgotten calendula?! I have loads of them that come back every year. About a month ago, I sowed more seeds I collected last year, and the plants look like they'll bloom in a couple weeks. I wanted a new crop of them for fall since they bloom so late into the season.

Tina McG

Without a second thought.........celosia are the best at selfsowing in my garden.....

I just thought of another one. My very favorite self seeder is the Wave Petunia that came up in the same container I had it planted in last year. It came up true, a pale lavender with a dark purple eye. It's huge and gorgeous.

Thank goodness I was careful when cleaning the weeds out of the containers this spring. I saw that seedling and thought, "Hey, that looks like petunia -- think I'll wait and see what happens."

Tina McG

Here in England we have a shorter growing season. Plenty of things will self-seed, such as Ricinus and Cleome, but they usually do so too late to make decent growth. Atriplex hortensis 'Rubra', however, comes up early enough to be 8 foot tall by July! Nasturtiums, Nigella and morning glories are also very reliable self-seeders for me.

I love self seeding volunteers. Especially when they come up in the unexpected places. I had a sunflower and black eyed susan come up right beside the basement door where I have no flowerbeds. My guess is the seeds got swept out with the dirt from under my seed collecting table in the basement!

Celosia
Cleome
Four oclocks
Tithonia and
Sunflowers all self sow real well for me.

But Amaranthus self sow way too much for me. I had 2 purple/red amaranthus plants last year. This year I must of pulled up 100's and I have a garden full. Im a little worried whats gonna happen next year.:0

Here's different one. Starburst Zinnia - they are small daisy shaped zinnias in cream/orange/yellow. I've only ever seen them sold in seed from Burpee, but they are absolutely great and will come back year after year, but if you get tired of them, pull them out one year before they seed and they wont come back.

They are totally drought resistant and just create a bush of flowers until frost. Their foliage and shape is like a moonbeam coreopsis but a bit shorter. One important point though is that its best to plant in a group, the plants get very big and lay down. Alone they look kind of odd, in a group they make a nice mound.

To reseed either be lazy like me and never pull out the dead plants until spring or shake the dead plants when you pull then out in the fall.

Anybody know if Venidium (African Zulu Prince Daisy) will self-seed for next year? This is my first year growing them and I am absolutely SMITTEN!

verbena bonariensis, cornflowers, anthemis tinctoria, coreopsis and canterbury bells. annoying ones are evening primrose and alchemilla mollis

What I've had self-seed here:

amaranthus polish purple
cosmos
calendula
nicotiana
rudbeckia
sweet annie
dill
alyssum

Another vote here for nasturtiums. Right now I've got dozens of little ones popping up all over the place from last year's plants. Don't know why they're germinating in bunches only now, so late in the season, but they're so cute.

Malva zebrina I love.... I get a few volunteers from that, but never as many as I wish I had.

Thanks to all who responded! I have compiled everyone's suggestions into this list.

Nasturtiums
amaranthus polish purple
cosmos
calendula
nicotiana
rudbeckia
sweet annie
dill
Sweet alyssum
verbena bonariensis
cornflowers
anthemis tinctoria
coreopsis
canterbury bells
evening primrose
alchemilla mollis
Starburst Zinnia
Celosia
Cleome
Four oÂclocks
Tithonia
Sunflowers
Ricinus
Atriplex hortensis 'Rubra'
Nigella
morning glories
Emilia
bachelors buttons
Snapdragons
Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina'
Portulaca
Sweet Alyssum
Garden balsam
Bells of Ireland (which come up EVERYWHERE!)
Salvia 'Forest Fire'
Salvia coccinea
Salvia splendens
Snapdragons
Larkspur
Melampodium
Balsam
Feverfew
Gomphrena
Hyssop-Korean
Perilla
Persicara 'Painter's Palette'
Salvia 'Victoria Blue'
Cosmos sulphurum
Zinnias 'cut and come again'
Johnny Jump Up
Dahlberg Daisy
African Daisy
California poppies