Discover 20 Self-Sowing Flowers!

For years of blooms with little work, choose plants that reseed themselves! Here’s a list of 20 annual and perennial flowers that are self-sowing. As you are busy deadheading your flowers, take a closer look at the seed heads you are cutting off. Toward late summer, allow some of the seed heads ripen until they turn brown and split open.

Your Self-Seeding Garden

The seed heads of plants are like salt shakers full of tiny seeds. When the capsules split open, scatter the seeds anywhere you would like them to grow or just let them drop where they are. Next spring, keep a sharp eye out for the seedlings when weeding. Some may be slow to emerge. If there are more than you want, you don’t have to keep them all. Thin them out to allow enough space for the plants to fully develop. Relocate the extras or pot them up to share with friends.

Don’t be surprised if nothing germinates in the fall. Some seeds just don’t like hot soil and others, such as poppies, need a cold period before they will sprout. This is called “vernalization.” Wait until spring to look for your seedlings.

If you live in a warm region, some of your scattered seeds—the ones that don’t mind the heat and don’t need a cold period—may sprout and grow during a mild winter. They will flower early and set more seeds, giving you several generations a year.

Open-pollinated and heirloom flowers will look like the parent plant, while hybrids usually don’t stay true to their parents’ form. Keep an eye out for “sports”—chance seedlings that display attractive traits not found in the parent plant. These genetic mutations can lead to some interesting new forms of old favorites!

Self-seeders will give your garden a natural cottage garden look, but some of them can become nuisances, crowding out more desirable plants. Be prepared to thin them out or move them to other spots around your yard.

Self-Sowing Annual Flowers

Here are some annuals that are willing self-sowers:

1. calendula
2. nigella (love-in-a-mist)
3. love-lies-bleeding
4. poppies
5. cleome
6. alyssum
7. verbena
8. bachelor buttons
9. portulaca
10. coreopsis

Self-Sowing Biennials

Biennials rely on self-sowing to keep the population going. They form a leafy plant in year 1 and will blossom in year 2:

1. foxglove
2. lunaria
3. forget-me-nots
4. hollyhocks

Self-Sowing Perennial Flowers

Many perennials will self-seed if not deadheaded:

1. columbine
2. primrose
3. pansies
4. lupine
5. coreopsis
6. echinacea
7. mallows
8. New England asters

Save a little money on plants next spring by welcoming some volunteers to your garden.

Also, learn how to save seeds from flowers and vegetables for replanting!