I would love some of all your seeds. I have lantanas, but not sure that they have seed yet.What are you asking in sase trade? djune

Could it be annual phlox? I have some I planted from seed years ago that reseeds itself, and it looks very similar.

In my zone 5 Iowa garden they definitely work as spring/early summer bloomers. I don't get good flowering throughout the summer. The ones that are reblooming currently look pretty pathetic now that I've gone to take a good look. I made several bouquets for an event in early July and already I had no sweet Williams suitable for cutting. I imagine there are ways to manipulate bloom times. I think there are some that bloom first year from seed so maybe those would flower during the summer if started from seed in the spring. Or maybe it depends in the amount if heat? Campanula, do your summers stay pretty mild? Here's a single plant I deadheaded and it is now just a pleasant bit of glossy green foliage. This is a full sun garden but the sweet will is shaded by other plants. I've noticed some just die out by now. As grdenweed mentioned above, they are generally biennial or short lived perennials. They are one of my all time favorites. The fragrance is one of the best flower scents, IMO. I find some fragrances overwhelming, but not sweet William. I have never grown the carnation (d. caryophyllus mentioned) as I thought they were fussy. Hmmm...I will have to revisit them! :) I saved seeds from a low growing pink one as Sammy mentioned. I am hoping the offspring will resemble those plants. One can buy single color varieties from a place like Geoseed. For example, they have 11 colors of the Barbarini series available, single color packets, or mix, $3.30 for a packet if 100 seeds. Swallowtail seeds also has two red varieties for sale. If you like buying open pollinated seeds though, I think you are more likely to end up with mixes. This post was edited by trovesoftrilliums on Thu, Aug 1, 13 at 12:10

I'm interested in mixed herbaceous perennial gardening, but have sometimes needed to fill in gaps at the front of beds, especially in small gardens like our own. I haven't hesitated to use sweet william as a filler, or a space-holder, at the front of a bed. Personally, I buy the plants themselves and also don't want, or get, any potential (degenerate) perennial-through-reseeding. I'd say that for it's size, sweet william is a great compact eye-catching small plant. I also like having some (attractively filled) spaces on hand for perennial possibilities next year. Below 'Sooty', one of the Nigrescens Group (a bit larger than typical sweet william) blooming late June to early July (2017) in our garden. For us, it's flowering also helps to span the relatively slow time between blooms of the spring- and the summer-flowering perennials.