The Easiest Flowers to Grow from Seed

Growing from seed is a tedious task if you’re wrestling with a plant that has unreliable germination rates. Gardeners with an eye for beautiful things will inevitably seek plants that are easy to grow from seed, yet aren’t miserable looking. And even if you’re tired of say, nasturtiums, there are uncommon varieties like 'Peach Melba' that will make you rethink their dolorous properties. 

Besides giving you a greater command over the varieties of flowers you’ll be growing, starting from seed is cheaper than buying live plants. When starting from seed, some flowers can be sown in the winter indoors in seed-starting trays; others can be planted directly in the spring. 

Here is a list of flowers that you can sow and forget. 

 

1. Morning Glories          

When it comes to both beauty and prolific spread, morning glories are a clear winner. The variety is dazzling, from carnivalesque colors to a celestial sky blue. Morning glories readily adhere to any surface, including chain-link fences, trellises, and woodwork. While they can tolerate a broad range of soil types, they prefer well-drained loamy soil. 

2. Shasta Daisy

Daisies may be a type of weed, but most of them consider them an asset in the garden. Shasta daisies bloom, a cultivated variety of daisy, bloom well into the lull of late summer, when activity is dying down. They’re great as filler plants and spread quickly, and deadheading can further promote their growth. 

3. Bachelor’s Button 

Cornflower blue is a prized color derived from the eponymously named cornflowers. These beautiful flowers bloom freely from mid-summer until the first frost, courting a myriad of pollinators. They dislike being transplanted, so sow directly outdoors after the last frost of spring. Collect the spent seed heads to save some for next year – look for a bullet-shaped seed with a silken tuft at the ends. 

4. Cleome 

Cleome is an antiquated plant, once popular in Victorian gardens, that has since fallen out of fashion, though that shouldn’t deter you from growing it. The foliage is dense, and at times, questionable, but its ever-lengthening spire of flowers, lending it the common name of spider plant, gives it an art deco quality. Hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and hummingbird moths all frequently flock to its flowers. When interspersed with larkspurs and zinnias, it creates a striking, layered tapestry. Cleome should be grown outdoors.

5.  Rudbeckias

The role of simpler flowers like rudbeckias has always been to flaunt the elegance of more stately flowers, like cleome. Like a doorman, they are always reliably there, attending to the other denizens of the garden. Some are indeed fabulously colorful, such as riotous Rudbeckia hirta 'Cherry Brandy.' They want not, and bloom prolifically. Left to overwinter in a greenhouse or enclosed area, rudbeckias rebound even more abundantly the second year. 

6. Sweet Alyssum

Not all flowers are superlatively beautiful, but they have their uses. Some, like sweet alyssum, are useful for filling empty spaces in the garden, creating a seemingly endless carpet. Its fragrant flowers teem with bees, flower flies, and butterflies. While the white and pink varieties impart a honey-like scent, the yellow is suspect, reeking of an unpleasant smell not unlike that of a skunk. 

7. Sunflowers 

It’s surprising to witness the rapid ascent of sunflowers from merely a tiny seed. Regardless of your reservations regarding the color yellow or your view of sunflowers as a cheap filler plant, they have their merits. No longer the garish yellow of old, years of cultivation techniques have yielded interesting cultivars, such as the fluffy Teddy Bear sunflower, the darkly-hued Chocolate Cherry, and the even darker Black Beauty. 

8. Sweet Pea 

If you’re fatigued of scraggly, bedraggled petunias languishing in their pots, look to sweet pea flowers instead. Twining luxuriantly around trellises, they bring a delicate beauty and boast striking colors, such as the 'Blue Shift' cultivar. Sweet peas germinate best at temperatures of 55°F, having been exposed to the cooler growing temperatures of 35-50°F. Give your seedlings room to grow with a deep-rooted planting tray. 

9. Larkspur 

If you are not fond of low-lying flowers, larkspurs are lofty plants that are generally easy to start from seed. Needing cool weather, they do not germinate well when soil temperatures are above 55°F and are notoriously difficult to transplant, so it’s recommended that you start them outdoors. It doesn’t need to be an exact science – some less finicky gardeners will even throw them into a patch of dirt, where they will grow happily. 

10. Marigolds 

Even if the other flowers in your garden are resting, marigolds won’t. All summer long, they bloom tirelessly and help deter pests from crops. They may start to dwindle once the summer heat arrives, but will pick up again during the fall, lasting until the first frost. 

11. Amaranth 

In terms of tenacity, amaranth surpasses most other plants: Under subjugation by European settlers on Aztec lands, it was banned, though it has managed to persevere in the face of colonial violence. It tolerates drought well, and its wild plumes add unexpected interest. Plant amaranth once all danger of frost has passed, as they do not like the cold. 

12. Zinnias  

Zinnias, like junk food, are incredibly accessible. Unlike junk food, they won’t leave you with a lingering sense of regret. Growing on robust stems in a wide range of colors, they have become so popular with gardeners that many wish they were perennial. To assuage the melancholy of when they’re gone, they self-seed, and you can always buy more.