Annual Seed Lists

I'm fed up with Winter pictures so I thought I would share with you some images of annuals for sowing over the Spring and Early Summer. The catalogues start to arrive in the post now and I use them with their corresponding websites to order seed when it is too dark (and horrid) to garden.

Annuals are an important feature in any garden and may be even more vital this year to plug the gaps left by plants you have lost to the snow and ice. They will also give you colour in the flowering gaps that can occur in June and late Summer. The examples below can be sown from January onwards undercover for early flowering or left until later to fill the high summer garden.You could sow them twice for two hits of colour. Here are some suggestions that we rely on and the seed houses we use regularly.

Sweet Peas: This is the mainstay of our Pickery (or cutflower garden) over the early summer. We grow over 50 varieties and the scent on a sunny day is pure English summer.We sell mixes and over 30 named varieties by mail order so if you would like to order these, see our shop page or email Mary at info@eastonwalledgardens.co.uk

Calendula officinalis: This photo shows our heritage sweet peas underplanted with the simple pot marigold. A versatile annual that is extremely easy to grow from its curly seeds, it can be used in the vegetable and herb garden and sown for a succession of colour. Good for children and, in its simpler forms, for insect life. Plants of Distinction offer a good range of unusual colours and forms.

Cornflowers: The perfect cottage garden or meadow annual. Really easy, cheap, loved by insects and available in 3 or 4 colours. We sow these early and late.The late sown seedlings are perfect for putting into gaps left by early bulbs but be careful to get them into the ground as healthy young seedlings to get the bushiest plants. Collect your own seedlings from this and Marigolds. Try Kings Seeds for a good range.

Gilia tricolor: I love this annual, it is not grown nearly enough. We came across this plant when we decided to grow cut flowers listed in the Chiltern Seeds catalogue.It will flower twice in a season without any help from you as the seeds drop early and reseed around their base. Look close into the flowers and they are an exquisite two tone deep purple with yellow throat. Again, really easy and a great cut flower.

Rudbeckia hirta 'Moreno' :Although strictly a perennial this works better in areas with hard winters as an annual. In the past we have trialled 15 varieties of Rudbeckias and this is a beautiful variety. Other good forms include 'Indian Summer' (recommended to me by Val Bourne) and 'Dwarf mixed' (in spite of the name, not very dwarf and an excellent mix of colours) Suttons sell Moreno and Indian Summer.  
Cosmos 'Psyche White' Nailing Cosmos so they grow well for you can be a proper horticultural challenge. At RHS Wisley they grow well over your head but you can also grow them badly as little dumpy things that are all spindly with a sad flower head. This is one we have had had great success with and is more reliable for us than the better known 'Purity.' We are going  to grow a range of  Cosmos this year to try and add to this one. Great for late summer colour and the single forms are, like most daisy-type flowers, popular with bees.Thompson and Morgan offer a good range including 'Psyche White'

And finally, the picture perfect, disease free, flower vase enhancing Clary or Salvia horminum Flowers for ages with blue, pink and white bracts and will resprout throughout the summer if you crop it by cutting down to a shoot.The pink form is shown in close up above with Cosmos. Don't dismiss the white form, its green veining looks lovely in small posies. Suttons supply seed and we have limited quantities available on request.

If you can't imagine summer ever being here again or are looking for a starting point for seed catalogues, I hope this post has inspired you. Happy Christmas x