Three annuals that grow beautifully from seed for me, self seed and give bright beautiful color all season are Cleomes, 4 O'Clocks and Shirley and Oriental Poppies. I hope you'll share a picture when you can. I'd love to see your garden.

MeMo

Thanks MeMo, I will see about some pics soon -- it's a little spare right now but all ready for sowing :).

Great ideas. I already have poppies on the other side of the yard which I love, but Cleomes and 4 O'Clocks will be new to my garden. I will check them out.

Nicole

My ultimo favorite... verbena bonariensis. They can grow tall and airy and so pretty over the summer into early fall. They will reseed to more fabulous plants in the next year. Oriental poppies flower around early summer in my zone 5 area. So in my yard, it's not a late flowering plant. It also very brief. Instead i like to use lilies, oriental lilies that grow 4 to 5 feet. Stocks will do well. California poppies will do well. They reseed as well.

I like russian sages for tall airy feel. (perennial and does reseed) Also butterfly bushes. (perennial but you need to cut them down during in the fall)

Ooh I found this photo that has verbena bonariensis... (attached). Is that pinkish purple one the one you meant?

I do use russian sage quite a bit, one big one in the front yard! Perhaps I will add it to the back too. I also have butterfly bush in a garden on the other side of the yard, but they are not doing very well for me, maybe they will really get going next year (that will be their fourth year, you would think!).

yeah my poppies only bloom briefly in spring, right about now actually this year (early for the weather).

Here is a link that might be useful: A Photo I liked with V. Bon.

Hollyhocks winter sow very well - won't have anything inside, very little care once you get them started in your milk jug or other container of choice. I have winter sowed enough hollyhocks over the last three years to completely go around the perimeter of my chain link fence - probably 200 linear feet. Check out the FAQ on the winter sowing forum on this website. I particularly like the black holly hocks. They self seed for me in zone 7b - New Mexico.

Okay here is a crazy list of things that are supposed to be good for direct sow in spring, from advice here and elsewhere. I am going to try this list and see what works, and then I will know for next year.

Anchusa arvensis

Borage, Blue, Borago officinalis, Organic

Brachycome iberidifolia

Calendula "Indian Prince"

Callistephus chinensis "Milady Deep Blue"

Centaurea cyanus "Pinkie"

Cleome hassleriana "Rose Queen"

Cosmos bipinnatus 'Daydream'

Cosmos bipinnatus 'Double Click'

Cosmos sulphureus 'Cosmic Mixed'

Echium plantagineum "Dwarf Blue Bedder"

Erigeron speciosus "Azure Fairy"

Erysimum cheiri, Cheiranthus cheiri "Vulcan"

Felicia heterophylla The Blues

Nemophila maculata "Five Spot"

Nemophila menziesii var. atomaria 'Snowstorm'

Papaver somniferum "Persian White"

Pennisetum villosum "Cream Falls"

Verbascum phoeniceum "Hybrids Mix"

Zinnia elegans "F1 Dreamland Coral"

Achillea millefolium "Cerise Queen"

Agapanthus africanus Blue

Alcea ficifolia Yellow

Delphinium Belladonna "Cliveden Beauty"
Echinacea angustifolia

Matthiola incana "Miracle Mix"

Trollius ledebour x chinensis "Golden Queen"

The verbenas are purple. But the photo you showed looks more like Joe Pye Weed - another great background plant. They do take over though. Another suggestion would be Filipendula (fluffy cotton candy pink blooms). Below is an example of verbena

Here is a link that might be useful: Verbena bonariensis

The verbena bonariensis is in eternitynicole's picture, in front of the Joe Pye Weed. Alas, verbena bonariensis self-sows everywhere.

here's a list:
Sunflowers
Marigolds
Morning glories
Bachelor buttons
Nasturtiums
Sweet peas
Sweet alyssum
Larkspur
Zinnia
Hyacinth bean
blue pea shell vine
Moon vine, really nearly all the annual vines work this way.

Just this week I took my boxes of seeds I've accumulated over the last 10 years and just scattered nearly ALL the seeds I have. Whatever comes up and grows great! Whatever doesn't --oh well..
Now my seed stash is much smaller and I can start over buying cheap marked down seeds for next year.

I asked the same question in the Texas forum recently.
I hope this works for both of us!

Here is a link that might be useful: Flower seeds you can just scatter

Oh here is another one I forgot...

Portulaca, (moss rose) I've always just scattered the seeds and watered.

chinese foget me not are very easy and will ss
zinnia purple prince is four feet tall will bloom july august and before and after
zinnia violet queen and enchantress 3 ft last two weeks in a vase
you can save seed from all three of those
balsams are easy easy easy and you can save seed from the purple ones to keep your color theme
columbines are easy from fresh seed if you know anyone that has
some plants
amaranthus caudatus is really easy to grow and dramatic

Thanks guys!

Mallorysc - I LOVE chinese forget me not and do those every year, though not yet in the area I'm working on now. I will have to add them!

I love those zinnia suggestions as I'd love color in July/August and I love to cut flowers. Thanks!

I once took all my leftover seed packets and cast the seeds along the edge of the road in front of my privet, county worker came along and mowed later so I have no idea if anything had even germinated. Cut all my chicory down too. :(

Bronze Fennel n the back for color, texture, butterflies
and can be direct sown.

Dill and Parsley also have that umbrel type flower that
attracts beneficial insects. Parsley is Biennial but starts
easily from seed with patience, you just have to wait
until the second year for bloom. I planted seed every
year for awhile, so I always have some seedlings getting
ready for the next year and bloom for that year.
I use mine mid border.

Try wintersowing Hollyhocks when your house is finished.
I gave up on Hollyhocks due to rust. Maybe you'll have better
luck. They are gorgeous.

Delphiniums are a great cottage garden plant, but not easy to start
from seed and germination is low. The newer Millennium varieties
are the best, and if you find seedlings for sale somewhere, you
would probably be better off. I am talking about the perennial.
Not sure if there is an annual?

I grow my 4 oclocks in pots rather than the ground because
they produce tubers that can keep coming back and I'm overly
cautious about anything that can become a pest. They are
very fragrant but open around dinner time not during the day.
On a warm summer night the fragrance can really travel.
I wouldn't be without them.

Calendula is very easy and good for front of border. And easy
to save the seed from year to year.

Cosmos 'Double Click', I had this briefly, but it didn't stay upright
Other single cosmos are great and do reseed in a mannerly way.
I found that once I planted them, I was never without them again
without any need for me to start more.

Love Verbascum, but have not tried to grow hybrids from seed.
It can be front of the border or mid border

Achillea will spread a lot and quickly.

Echinacea is a wonderful perennial addition and some varieties
will reseed for you once established. I have a lot of seedlings this year.

Some people find Verbena bonariensis a pest eventually.
I have been growing it for about 3 years and this year I am
starting to see it pops up in a lot of area that requires my
attention. Still liking it though.

Columbines are very easy but they reseed a little too vigorously
for me. I still like them, but I deadhead carefully now.

Dianthus is easy from seed, but I have only winter sown them
not direct sown. I think they may need a cold period? They are
a nice cottage garden plant for the front of the border and will
give a good period of bloom if you don't mind deadheading them.
They are another plant whose seed are very easy to save and start
for year to year. Wintersowing them is as easy as it gets. There
are perennial and annual versions. Some are fragrant.

Four years, your Butterfly Bush should be performing well.
Is it growing in full sun?

Agastaches are an easy perennial to start from seed and some also reseed. I have 'Honey Bee Blue' and it reseeds in a way I enjoy. I love the 'root beer' fragrance of the foliage and another easy to save seed...and very pleasant to collect the seed with that fragrance on the foliage. Agastache rupestris is also easy and airy.

Schoolhouse - that's just what I did last year and this year, so I hope some will come up (it's in the backyard so safe from the city for the most part)... So sorry to hear what happened to yours!

prairiemoon2 - goodness thanks so much for the in depth advice! I love the bronze fennel idea, and so many other wonderful ones, as soon as I finish this round of seeds I bought last week, I am coming back to this list. And on Delphs, mine we biennials except for one that came back this year-- they were low maintenance except for being staked which I didn't mind, and great performers with no disease, BUT looks like I will have to plant new this year. I plan to buy several fro the nursery already growing, but I'm also trying some from seed. I don't see any of the seed that I collected and sowed from mine has grown, but it might be too early to tell yet.

I will also check out those agastache! In the past I had thought it looked too... alien? tropical? for my cottage garden, even though I know it is used a lot and looks good. At least that's what I thought of varieties I saw in the store here but I don't think that's true of all of them - and it has grown on me anyway :). I saw lovely spread in a garden magazaine that was heavy on it and it looked great.

Butterfly bush- was in part sun because not very tall the first few years -- if they had been a little taller would have been sunnier... moved it to full sun this year and hoping it will take off!! Two of them several feet apart... thinking of training them into an arch next year if they do well in more sun now.

Thanks again,

N

Nicole, Delphinium seed has to be really fresh and even then the germination rate is not all that great. I love Delphiniums and ordered seed from New Zealand. It was expensive, but I had read their particular varieties were mildew resistant and hardy and are a tall variety that is considered superior to Pacific Giants. They call their hybrids Millennium and with all that effort to get the seed and grow them.....that is why I suggest that you can find Millennium seedlings available at nurseries sometimes and it's much easier.

After all that, I ended up with about 5 plants and they did not perform as well in my part sun garden and I tried to move them and lost them. So I don't have any right now, but I may add some again sometime.

I don't really enjoy a tropical look in my cottage type garden either. I've thought some of the Agastache look similar to a meadow plant. I like the way they look with grasses and echinacea, salvias.

I think you will see a big difference with your Butterfly Bush this year in full sun. One of my favorite shrubs that I wouldn't be without.

Glad it was helpful and I hope you have a lot of fun with it this year! :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Dowdeswell Delphiniums

My favorites to direct-sow and allow to self-sow are:
'Astoria' mix asters
Love-in-a-mist
sweet william (dianthus)
bachelor buttons (centaurea)
sweet alyssum
garden balsam (impatiens balsamina)
cosmos
feverfew
and for herbs: dill, cilantro, and sweet cicely.

Nicole, just a shot of what the Parsley looks like blooming with echinacea....

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And there is a little verbena bonariensis on the left in there too.