Nan, I bought some Vinca called Titan Lilac and they have done well. Some solid color portulacas and that is all I have bought this summer. The rest were wintersown.

Got some orange Profusion zinnia seeds in a trade and I spring-sowed them. Just fab! Foliage looks excellent and no deadheading is required. Want to get the cherry pink ones for next year.

I tried a lot of new annuals this year that are supposed to be good candidates for self-sowing.
Red Four O'clocks- just love their triangular shaped leaves and they look "lush" in my dry climate. Plus its a big seed that comes up quickly and doesn't get lost in the weeds =)
Dwarf lemon cosmos- like little bits of sunshine and an amazing number of flowers per little 8-12" tall plant
Coreopsis tintura Radiata mix- this coreopsis will be an annual in zone 6, some are perennials but it has amazing burgandy velvet blooms...that happen to match its neighbor's gaillardia (blanket flower) blooms.
Purple Prince zinnia- large healthy plants with lots of flowers per plant. Nice shade of purple. Some blooms are double, others single in my plants.
Should have seeds for these this fall. I'm looking forward to trading!
Tessa

Sorry - I ran out of time to sow any annuals this year but can attest to alyssum's staying power after last year's experience. Plants bloomed non-stop right up to Thanksgiving despite our 4-month long drought. They never got watered in all that time, not even once, as I tended my WS perennials on both sides of them. As if that weren't enough, they self-seeded and came up again this year. Same w/California poppies.

IF I don't go overboard with WS this year, there's a chance I might have some spare time/leftover milk jugs/potting mix for annuals next year so I'm reading with interest everyone's suggestions on this thread. Thanks...and keep 'em coming!

kvenkat - profusions are a favorite of mine too. Be sure to harvest seed! They put out lots (good for trading). I have orange, white and cherry pink. I'll be able to share all of them in the fall - send me an email.

So, I have a few I'd like to mention...
First of all, snaps. I have had snaps before, but this year I WS multi colored ones from Parks seed...they're still pumping out the flowers like crazy, looking great. I bought a 6 pack to fill in before they really beefed up, which you can see in the background here..{{gwi:422704}}From Around The Garden 2011

The ones from the 6 pack were nice, but don't compare to the multi hued ones from seed.
Also, this year I bought 2 2 inch pots of Vinca Icy Pink. I had these last year as well, god they're just my favorite. Light pink to dark pink with a yellow halo in the center. {{gwi:422705}}From Around The Garden 2011

And I have to mention alyssum and nicotiana. I placed 2 half gallon clumps of alyssum next to my dianthus, and it turned into this:{{gwi:422706}}From Around The Garden 2011

And I planted a bed with nicotiana and alyssum (along with other WS babies) and it became this:
{{gwi:422707}}From Around The Garden 2011

I need to get out and take some new pictures, these were from the end of July. Things are bigger now.

I guess I should mention what hasn't turned out as well as I'd hoped. I WS containers of the Dolcissima line of petunias, which on parks website are brightly colored, rich looking flowers. What I got was this..
{{gwi:422708}}From Around The Garden 2011

The yellow (limoncello) and the pink (fragolino) are just kind meh. The flambe is ugly. Weird random pink spots on basically all white flowers. If you look closely, there's also a tidal wave silver plopped in that bed, those turned out great, as did my opera supreme lilac ice. (all WS) I only bought 2 petunias from the nursery this year, just because my WS ones took longer than expected to fill out and I needed to fill my hanging baskets. If you click the link below the pictures, you can see pics of those as well as my huge canna bed that may soon eat my hot tub. Enjoy!

Wow, pretty!!!! Do you remember the name on the SNAPS seeed from Parks? I have been trying and trying with snaps over the years (I love them in bouquets)and while this year was my best year yet, they are not great bloomers.

And that Vinca Icy pink is going right down on my want list!!!!!

Another annual I want to promote is Browallia. I find I can easily grow it from seed in the spring and the blue/purple flowers in a very open, airy habit look good everywhere. I have soem in pots with zinnias, I have some in the beds with Mellies. It just blooms and blooms.

Nancy

I sowed cascadia mix, rocket mix, and terra cotta mix. didn't mark them after I planted so I'm not sure which one is in the picture. Parks doesn't appear to have the terra cotta mix anymore but they have rocket and cascadia. You can probably find them cheaper elsewhere though.

Since this was my first year winter sowing, I tried lots of plants I've never grown before. My favorites are:

Love Lies Bleeding
Tropical Milkweed
Verbena
Tithonia
Verbena bonariensis
Balsam
Asters "Crego Mixed Colors"

Since I've planted these, lots and lots more butterflies have been hanging around too!

Great pictures, livsauntieshel!

Brad AKA Moonwolf

Beautiful, liv! I gotta say - tried the Dolcissima flambe salmon several years back, and I was very disappointed too. Up till then, I'd never met a petunia I didn't like.

{{gwi:422709}}

PV

I tried Swiss chard in front of sunflowers and hollyhock to hid the lower leaves which sometimes get brown and ugly. Not only did it work to hide brown leaves but it was quite attractive in its own.

Albert - it's really tasty too!

I tried balsam for the first time and love it - how have I never seen this plant before? If you like tall plants I would also recommend amaranthus 'intense purple'. It has dark purple leaves and was very easy to start - I'd grow it even if it didn't flower. It's done well in the garden and in pots. One group looks particularly nice with cleome violet queen.

Scabiosa and Rudbeckia H. Moreno, were winners for me.

this is my second year with pink/yellow celosia (tall) and yellow strawflower.
Love 'em.
and my first year, thanks to Nan, with pink strawflower which is definitely a keeper.
Also love the cherry rudbeckia which I sowed last year, and returned this year, altho not as many as I had hoped for.

Amaranths "Pygmy Torch" and "Hot Biscuits": really, why hadn't I tried these before? The seeds came from Pine Tree Seeds; about 90% germination. I'll try additional varieties next year as well.

Sweet Annie (Artemisia annua): love it.

Anise hyssop: an annual in my zone, but I'm going to try to overwinter it in the garage to save re-planting it in spring.

I have always loved the amaranths and I've noticed this summer that folks walking through my gardens always ask about it - especially now that flower/seedhead's are huge. I cut it all summer long for bouquets. They reseed wildly in my gardens so I've not actually had to sow them in years, but I do collect seed for trade because EVERONE should have some in their beds. I've grown lots of different kinds but the two I like best are Purple Pygmy Torch and Red Hopi.

Cleome Seniorita Rosalita I tried for the first time. Grew easily--nice dwarf that just keeps flowering. Doesn't give out like the taller cleome. I also tried the dwarf white and pink/white. They were nice, though not so free flowering as Seniorita. Moreover, some numbskull came along and yanked off the blooms for a bouquet, and the plants never did fully recover. Just shows, you can't grow anything too nice or some trashy humans will come along and steal it.

{{gwi:21471}}

Where did you find dwarf variety of cleome? Love that color combination. Those are delphinums(dark purple)next to cleome or Plumbago? Larkspur? I have a friend that has lots of cleome and wants to give me seed but it's so tall, I don't know if DH will approve. Her's looks like it might be a light pink or lavender. She said she had that. and lots of garden phlox plus Jacob Cline and Shasta daisies this summer and it was so beautiful.

Seniorita Rosalita is a Proven Winner cultivar. I think you have to buy the plants each year. But one plant becomes a nice clump. Salvia farinacea Victoria beside it. The other dwarf cleome are also Proven Winners. They were also striking, though not as dense a clump (slightly larger flowers). As I noted, someone thought it would be a good idea to pick them. While the taller cleome can be nice, they take much more room and, in my experience, soon become seedy. Seniorita has been blooming three months and is more beautiful than ever at about 26 inches.

Lantana 'Sunrise Rose' - I saw this in a couple of gardens last year. It has a 3 tone flower of pink, orange and little yellow. It takes awhile to get going but what a stunner and you only need a few for pops of color. It paired well with Salvia 'Victoria' and white alyssum.

Mantis - I love that dwarf cleome, gorgeous.

I splurged on some Zahara Raspberry Lemonade Mix Zinnias from Burpee. I love them! They all germinated, and except for the few that I killed (oops) they all grew and are very cute! They are still blooming away...

My first winter sown plants were Petunia 'Purple Wave'. Here they are with Hosta Fried Bananas.
{{gwi:422710}}

Thanks for all your help.

Steve

mantis, that cleome is so pretty, especially with the salvia.

Steve, luv your combo! I grow 'Shockwave Purple' myself - actually they grow themselves, since they reseed like mad in my pots.

PV