If you want to give her easy to grow seeds along with a gift card, I'd give her cosmos, larkspur, sunflower, and zinnia. Those are all "throw and grow" and provide quite a few to cut. Happy home!

I do intend to give a gift card along with the seeds. Rob can you suggest specific varieties that you are fond of?

All day long! Any of the Cosmos bipinnatus because they're tall enough. Cultivars I like are 'Ruben' and 'Candy Stripe'. This year I'm trying 'Xanthos' and 'Double Take'. Larkspur the Giant Imperial. I have gotten to where I am picky about which ones although they're all beautiful. Right now I have 'Blue Spire' and 'Carmine King' on their way to me. Blue Spire is one of my all-time favorites. 'Carmine King' is a new try. Sunflower have two types. the single heads and the branching. I like branching for cutting. My favorite is 'Italian White'. Zinnias, the taller ones are better for cutting, and 'Giant Wine' is stunning. All of these are anywhere on the internet, so I'm only sending you links to specific sites to give you options. I'm betting you can get them all (not necessarily the cultivar, but tall Cosmos, Larkspur, Sunflowers, and Zinnias) in person in Home Depot and Walmart for instance.

As for the sunflowers, don't get the mammoth seeds unless she has the strength to remove a small tree when the plant fades.

Don't overdo it on the seeds, as another said, let her have the fun of picking them out. Maybe gloves, garden tools, etc.

I'm in the process of moving to a new house that has a large yard and not one flowerbed or shrub on the entire 1/2 acre! I'm so sad to be leaving my large perennial and annual flowerbeds behind. Starting with a blank slate. Sigh.

That said, I would LOVE a basket of all kinds of seeds! I love growing from seed and have shelves and lights to do so. If you give her any seeds she doesn't want, she just won't have to plant them.

Although they're probably not great for cutting, marigolds are extremely easy to grow from seed. Zinnias are also a favorite of mine.

Have fun seed shopping!

The reason for the seeds (based on favorites here) is that choosing ones that are suitable can be overwhelming for a first time gardener. This would give her a start and hopefully much success and she could add to them with the gift card. For her birthday in June, I'll get her a bird feeder or something for her garden.

Just to reassure you, that's why I suggested the seeds I have. They're very easy to grow. She'll do great if she's never grown any or if she has, they're still really awesome plants to have.

Irma, I don't grow many annuals any more but one I've kept going for a few decades and brought seeds with me to this house is Nigella Miss Jekyll, the blue form. I love blue in the garden, and it self sows for me reliably every year. I save a few seed pods, and if I want some in an area where it hasn't volunteered I have only to toss some seeds into that space in late winter.

The only time deer have bothered it was last year. Deer sheared back a wide swath of plants that were spreading down my hill in back. They recovered and still bloomed, just later ;0)

A basket with garden tools, gloves, a sun hat , a few packets of seeds with a gift certificate to a local greenhouse is what I know I would love!

How about a small trio of vases?

I would like to suggest one of those cans of cut flower mixtures plus a gift certificate to a garden center that she likes rather than a collection of flower seeds. With the gift certificate she can purchase plants that will have blooms quicker while waiting for the seed started flowers to bloom.

All great ideas for annuals, but I would say that a nice garden will involve some good planning. Could you suggest to your friend that she consider bulbs such as iris, tulips, daffodils, and other perennial bulbs that will enhance her cutting garden as well as a few small flowering shrubs (hydrangeas are one example). That doesn’t mean she can’t have annuals. She can plant the annuals around the fading foliage of the bulbs and then enjoy nearly a full spring, summer and fall of flowers.

Perhaps you could find a book on flower gardening for your growing zone that would be good for your basket and would help her plan her garden. Or a membership at a local botanical garden would be fun to see what is growing at various times of the year might give her good ideas.

Knowing my friend as well as I do, getting seeds for her that she can plant for cutting is the best gift for her. This will be her first time ever and she is excited about growing flowers from seed. I will get the ones suggested for her (Rob thanks for the links). As far as the rest of the landscape, I am certain she will hire a landscaper to advise her and do maintenance.

Thank you all who gave seed suggestions which is what I requested.

Flowers that did well for me in the vase: Agrostemma, Strawflowers (Xerochrysum), Nigella, Eryngium, Centaurea, Forget-me-nots (Myosotis and Cynoglossum), Dianthus, Phlox, Verbena.

I liked buttefly bush in the vase, too, but this can get weedy in the garden and invasive in parts of the US.

Something i have noticed in bouquets with the flowers mentioned above is a plant with interesting leaves Euphorbia Snow-on-the-Mountain, I had asked someone what the plant was and was told it is an easy to grow annual.

I have had good luck with Asclepius (butterfly weed), bee balm, cockscomb (celosia, dwarf if you can find seed for those), cleome, and just about any zinnia and cosmos that suits your fancy color-wise. All make nice cuttings for bouquets. Sorry, I didn’t realize you were interested only in seed.

Caution with Snow on the Mountain. it is a Euphorbia and has a milky sap that is hard to remove. Some people have received bad through the skin burns from Euphoria's.

You can check out the Cottage Garden forum for ideas:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/cottage