Perfect for beginner gardeners, small gardens, containers, and first-time seed sowers.
Growing from seed is a cost-effective way to create your dream garden, whether flower, fruit or vegetable seeds. I sow a mix of perennials (they come back every year) and annuals (You’ll get one year out of them, so it’s not a huge commitment). But I’ve a feeling that once you start sowing and see those little shoots growing tall, you’ll be hooked!
Now, before we go any further, for full disclosure, my name is Karen, and I am a seedaholic. No, really. I could legit compete with the garden centres at this point! But sowing seeds is like therapy for me, and I’m telling you, if you get yourself some seed compost, a little tray or two (use plastic containers from your food shop and poke a few holes in the bottom for drainage), have a bit of heat, light and patience, you’ll be ready to go.
I’ve whittled this list down to five flowers to grow this year, and I’ve found them to be the easiest to grow and great for little bouquets. My aim this year is to go out to the garden every week and pick flowers for my posy vases throughout the house, so I can enjoy the garden inside, too.
Sunflowers
Sunflowers are my all-time favourite flowers and have been for years. Growing my first sunflower was so much fun, albeit stressful, as I’d bought a giant variety. I just didn’t know how giant! Giant sunflowers will stress you out on windy days, but they’re tough!
In the last few years, I’ve loved growing different varieties. Little Dorrit is perfect for pots on a patio or a balcony, and this year, I’ll grow them in pots. They’re great for cutting as the flower heads aren’t too big.
I’ve also grown Sunspot sunflowers and love that I never know what colour the petals are going to be as the seeds all look the same. This variety produces a lot of sunflower heads, so they’re great for cut flowers, but they will need support as the stalks are thick.
Sunflowers love being planted in a hot, sunny position in the garden, as they like 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. However, that is never a guarantee in Ireland, but mine have fared quite well over the years.
I don’t think there’ll be a time when you look out into your garden, see a sunflower you’ve grown and not smile! They’re magic.
Sweetpeas
These are easy to grow, and you get so many flowers out of one seed. Sweetpea roots can be long, so it’s best to grow them in a long root trainer or the cardboard centre from a toilet roll. You can just plant them out as is, toilet roll and all. The cardboard will disintegrate in the soil, so happy days.
There are such a wide variety of sweetpeas to choose from, and most are beautifully fragrant. To maximise their blooms, cut them as they flower. The plant will invest more energy in growing new blooms than in producing seeds.
Sweetpeas like their roots to be cool, and their flowers and foliage in the sun. I’ve had great success planting them in both pots and the ground. They’ll need support, and I’ve grown mine up bamboo canes and up an archway, too.
They’re fantastic as cut-and-come-again blooms. The more you cut them, the more flowers will emerge, as the plant won’t be sending energy to make the seeds. But at the end of the season, I let some seedheads develop and dry out, saving them for the following year.
Cosmos
Another must-have in my garden is cosmos. I’ve grown them in shades of pink and white, and last year, I grew the apricot lemonade variety, which was gorgeous.
You can grow cosmos undercover from March to April or sow directly in pots or the ground in May. They usually germinate quickly, and as they get taller, you can pinch out the tips to get bushier plants. If you are looking for height, don’t pinch them out and let them grow tall in all their glory.
As long as you keep picking the blooms, they’ll keep producing flowers. Towards the end of the summer, you can let some go to seed and then harvest them, ready for next year. You can get so many seeds from one seedhead, so they’re a really productive flower, but most importantly, they’re super easy to grow.
Poached Egg
These are so much fun to grow and look more like a fried egg than a poached one! But they’re quick to flower, bright and friendly, and hardy, too. When the family is over for BBQs, we’ve stepped on them so many times, and they’ve survived.
This plant is self-seeding, and as the seed drops at the end of its cycle, you’ll see more plants sprouting up around the original plant next spring. The leaves are distinctive, so they’re easy enough to dig up and move around the garden if you find them in unexpected places.
I recently learned that the poached egg plant attracts hoverflies, which eat aphids. So I’ll be sowing more seeds this year and leaving them close to my tomatoes, asters, cosmos and zinnias, which aphids love!
Zinnias
I grew these for the first time the year before last and loved the burst of colour that they brought to the garden. They work well in pots and in the ground, and once you protect them from the slugs when they’re seedlings, you’ll have great pops of colour in your garden, patio, or balcony.
Again, there are so many different varieties of zinnias to choose from, so go wild and experiment!
For more garden content, visit my YouTube channel, where I’ve been documenting my gardening journey for the last few years. Last year, we had the garden landscaped and basically had to start it all from scratch. The bare bones of the garden are there and this year I’m building on it big time, one seed at a time!
