What do you want to grow this year?

last year

Last winter I happened upon a delightful little book called A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seed by James Fenton.

In it he writes ”ask simply: what do I want to grow this year? Forget design fir a moment. Design has become a terrible, stupid, and expensive tyrant. Thr emphasis here is all on content. Such a garden should have the same beauty as an allotment. It says: This is what I felt like having this year.”

There us liberation in these words.

For me, there is also validation since my passion to try everything has always tugged me in this direction.

So what seeds are you trying this year that is new to you? and what are your tried and true varieties.

I will be planting pandora poppies again

peony poppies, Lauren’s Grape poppies, larkspur, ’blue bedder’ salvia and ’big blue‘ salvia. This year I will try two new salvia ’Oxford Blue’ and ’Summer Jewel Pink’ (to see how it compares to my beloved ’Coral Nymph’). I will grow gomphrena ’fireworks’ again since the self sown offspring didn’t shop up last year as they did in years prior. Same with celosia, I have packet of ’Asian Garden.’

This year I’ll grow Digitalis ’Camelot’ again, but will also try Dalmation and Pink Panther and the perennial variety Spanish Peaks.

I can’t pass up Zinnias. oh how i love zinnias! ‘Exquisite,’ ’Purple Prince,’ and ’Zahara Double Raspberry Ripple’ are favorites. I will try a bee variety ’Hidden Dragon’ that caught my eye. I will grow more chives because they help keep the squirrels and voles away. I love the snapdragon ’potomac orange,’ and I can’t pass up viola for the spring.

there are other native perrenials too, but you get the idea. 🙃

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Comments (10)

erasmus_gw
last year
I admire a beautiful design but think it's also fine to just plonk stuff where you can. Seeds I've ordered:

Excelsior foxgloves ...I loved these a couple years ago but they did not reseed well. Have a few plants in the ground from last year.

Cosmos dwarf cutesy

larkspur mix....I used to have tons of it but it petered out. Usually they germinated outdoors in fall so I wonder if it's too late but will try scattering some soon. ( zone 7a, NC)

Creme de Cassis hollyhock

alyssum

zinnias, cactus type

Chinese forget-me-nots

Chantilly snapdragon mix

Want some seeds of coreopsis, lavender.

Want to grow perovskia, butterfly weed. Ordered some lilies from The Lily Garden, ordered about 7 clematis. Plan to grow some nasturtiums...they bloomed all summer last year. Would like an abutilon plant, Satin Blue hibiscus, Wedding Bells brugmansia, a native lupine. Have rose seedlings coming up right now indoors. PLan on growing some tomatoes. Want penstemons.

Markay, do the poppy seeds do well for you if you plant them in spring? I used to have good corn poppies. Bought a pack of " corn poppies" that looked more orange and bloomed a very short time before melting away. Lauren's Grape didn't do well either.

Is Blue Bedder salvia similar to Victoria Blue? That one keeps on blooming. Coral Nymph reseeded here generously for awhile.
Markay MD-Zone 7A (8A on new map)
Original Author
last year
Erasmus, I typically scatter poppy seed directly in the garden in late winter and it does very well for me. I hope the pandora poppies with reseed, but didn’t want to risk it.

These were the peony poppies.

Blue bedder is very much like Victoria, but taller. It is about 24” tall.

I thought about trying brugmansias. i have never tried them.

Where do you order your clematis from?
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erasmus_gw
last year
Oh , the poppies look great! Nice to know it can work to sow in late winter.

Some people around here grow brugs in the ground and they sometimes will live a few years. I will be looking for surviving brugs after the Christmas freeze which got down to 4 degrees.

I have grown at least one in the ground and some in large pots which I brought inside in winter. The one in the ground really got too big.

I buy clems from Donahue's which sends small but nicely rooted plants at decent prices, and from Brushwood which has a big selection of more unusual ones, and from Hummingbird Farm which sends plants with the biggest roots, IMO. Used to buy some from Silver Star Vinery but they seem to have gone out of business. Also bought one from Digging Dog Nursery that I couldn't find anywhere else. I've been able to root some of them too, which makes me worry less about whether one will make it in a particular spot. Have pretty much gone clem crazy. Bought some in bags at Walmart , most of which did well. Have to pot them up till bigger.

Blue Bedder sounds worth a try.
rosaprimula
last year
I grow a lot of annuals because they are quick and easy from seed but I do try to grow some novel varieties every year, along with the usual cosmos, larkspur, limnanthes and centaureas

I love flax and always grow red flax along with blues such as l.narbonense, lewisii and perenne. This year, I have a couple of yellows - l.capitatum and l.rigida as well as the dainty white catharticum. I am also growing poppies - p.atlanticum and p.miyabeanum as well as a little tufted poppy - escholtsia caespitosa. New to me are the sweet vetches - hedysarum boreale and hedysarum tauricum.

I got a little fed up with forget-me-nots but have decided on another member of the borage family - eritrichum canum. I generally grow a couple of nemophilas...and this year, I am trying a little spotted white - n.atomaria as well as Baby Blue eyes and Penny Black. And cos I love the blues, I generally grow phacelia campanularis and bolanderi.

I am also going to grow one of the taller nicotianas such as n.langsdorfii and a darker coloured version of 'Tinkerbell' (name I have forgotten).

I am growing a whole bunch of perennials which are new to me...with a special mention for the species penstemons (p.mensarum, strictum and a couple of others (names escaped me until I check my orders)

Finally, Have gone a bit overboard on the umbellifers with around 8 or 9 new varieties such as the selinums, seseili and the unpronounceable molopospermum pelopponesiacum.
Markay MD-Zone 7A (8A on new map)
Original Author
last year
wow Rosaprimula! such a variety. i also love flax!

Erasmus, I have ordered from Donahue’s and was quite pleased. Haven’t tried the others, but tempted!
functionthenlook
last year
It's not what I want to grow, but what I want to kill. I want to kill 2/3rd of the ornamental grass we have. It is getting harder for us to cut down every fall. It served its purpose to fill in for privacy until the various shrubs we planted 7 years ago grew large enough for privacy.
zen_man
last year
last modified: last year
I intend to grow kohlrabi, possibly some climbing English Peas, and a few Seedless Tomatoes. My flowers will probably be exclusively Zinnias, including a lot of my home-crossed hybrids, including some old zinnia seeds. I assume the germination will be pretty low in the old zinnia seeds, but the motivation for planting them is that any old zinnia seeds that do come up will possibly have better-inherited seed longevity. I will grow a lot of recombinant zinnias, like these specimens.

I think that little green fellow on that last zinnia was a half-grown katydid. But I could be wrong about that. I didn't harm him because I don't think he was eating the zinnia. I suppose it could have been a girl bug.

ZM
mxk3 z5b_MI
last year
"I can’t pass up Zinnias. oh how i love zinnias! ‘Exquisite,’ ’Purple Prince,’ and ’Zahara Double Raspberry Ripple’ are favorites."

Me, too! They're such happy flowers. "Purple Prince" is also one of my favorites. "Benary's Giant Purple" is an excellent substitute, the color differs only slightly, so I'll grow whichever I can get from wherever I'm ordering.

I'm trying comfrey this year. My fruit growing book suggests planting comfrey under the fruit trees, so what the heck I'll give it a try. The seeds are in the fridge right now cold stratifying.

I'm also trying "Big Blue" salvia. Trying this one on a board rec, it's supposed to be very similar to "Mystic Spires", which is becoming harder to find and is $$; if it's a good substitute, will be much less hassle than going the cuttings route.

New sunflower cultivars because I need shorter plants, mine got something like 8-9' tall last year and I couldn't reach the flowers to cut -- until they toppled over during a storm, that is. One of my old favorites "Jua Inca" is no longer available, but "Jua Maya" is so I'll grow those along with the new ones I'm trying - "Dwarf Music Box" and "Firecracker".

DH wanted jalapenos this year, I typically grow peppers but not hot peppers. He also wanted a different edamame cultivar. So those are new.

On a side note, I'm revisiting my "old days" and growing impatiens from seed -- used to grow impatiens every year at my other house but not here, so that's a blast from the past for me. I can't tell you the thrill I had when I finally got the knack for getting impatiens to germinate after a couple years of failure -- I felt like hey now I'm a pro! LOL!
erasmus_gw
last year
You have some interesting zinnias, Zenman. Rosaprimula, I would like to hear more about growing Baby Blue Eyes nemophila. I think they dislike hot temps. I bought a pack of seeds last year of a white one with purple spots which I never sowed. How hot is it where you are in spring and summer? Do you start seeds indoors?

I have not bought impatiens seeds but usually have some coming up on their own so I don't think they're very fussy. They like to come up in potted plants. Something that's kept consistently moist.

A vine that looks good to me is Canary Creeper. A type of nasturtium. Anyone grow that? Is it invasive? I like the looks of cypress vine but I hear it's invasive. I already have invasive morning glories and a wild passiflora.
rosaprimula
9 months ago
Ah, soz for taking ages to reply Erasmus. I don't think nemophila are too allergic to heat although, like all these Californian annuals, they like a direct sowing and are up and about in May and finished by the middle of July. They do leave seeds around for following years (like limnanthes and escholtsia, self-perpetuating. I like to tuck them in pots then simply pull them when they cease to look good.

I am growing maurandya this year - currently just beginning to flower. Some of these climbers (cobaens, moonflower, thunbergia) are so slow to get going, it is practically frost time before I see a bloom...although I suspect they are forced in commercial nurseries for an earlier showing).