Sowing Seeds
It's the miracle everyone wants: You plant a seed in the soil, add a little water and sunshine, and soon you're eating what you grew. Learn how to sow seeds and fill your garden with a feast of flowers throughout the year
How do I grow hardy annuals?
Add hardy annuals such as cornflowers and poppies into your garden for quick and vibrant colour. They are easy to sow directly into the soil, inexpensive, and provide you with colour the same year if sown in spring, or the following year if sown in autumn.
What can they do for me?
Hardy annuals are great space-fillers among shrubs or look great in their own right. You can even consider growing them in containers.
n Keep displays interesting
n Grow flowers for cutting
n Provide a theme in the border
n Make use of annual climbers
What are hardy annuals?
A hardy annual is one you can sow outdoors in the UK, which germinates from seed, grows, flowers, disperses its seeds and dies in one growing season. (All in the same year if sown in spring, or from one autumn to the next). There are myriad hardy annuals which you can peruse in garden catalogues and nurseries. Here is a list of favourites to choose from:
n Cornflower
n Honeywort (Cerinthe)
n Nasturtium (Tropaeolum)
n Sunflower (Helianthus annus)
n Love-in-a-mist (Nigella)
n Californian poppy (Eschscholzia californica)
n Sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus)
