A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Help!!! Annuals?!?

I'm looking through some seed catelogs and there are some really nice annuals that I'd like to get seeds for....the only thing is that I want them to come up again next year too so that I don't have to plant them all again. Do these seed themselves maybe?? If not...then how do they propogate themselves in the wild!?

Snapdragons
Lobelia
Cosmos
Dusty Miller

If they don't replant themselves somehow, then I may not get them, but I really REALLY want them!!! Help!

Jenn are you in zone 6? I have dusty millers here and they always make it through the winter a year or so....in the spring I just cut back the parts that look damaged and they grow back just fine. During the summer if they put off the little yellow flowers I just cut them off because they aren't that nice to look at really, but the foliage is beautiful.

Most of them should reseed if you leave them....but I've never had much luck with that....if they do reseed it's either way, way down in a different part of the yard entirely..or only one or two, or none....I've never had them reseed in masses or anything.

I do know that the Golfinches will eat the seeds from the cosmos though....They stripped mine pretty bare last year.

The plants you mentioned are all pretty common, you could probably find them at walmart and save yourself some shipping costs if you wanted.

The cosmos will almost surely reseed...plant some and you will probably never be without more year after year. It reseeds so well you'll probably need to thin the seedlings out because you'll have so many. Over 5 years ago I grew some of the pink ones in one area and the orange ones in another and I've had them ever since.

I usually get my seeds from Gurney's and I always get a $25 off of a $50 purchase coupon. I've never had a problem, so for all of what I want to order, with the coupon I only have to pay $28 icluding shipping. With the coupon, the shipping costs don't really matter.

Calendula's
Foxgloves
Verbena *bonariensis*
Johnny~Jump~Up's
Borage
Malva's
Columbines'
Hollyhocks'
Centaura's *Centaurus dealbata, Centaura Montana or Mountain Bluet*
Lupines


Alllllllllllll re~seed prolifically for me up here...
And no maintainence *none*

Wow, I wish mine reseeded like yours do....

I grow cosmos every single year, lots of them and I've never had them reseed....the only thing that's actually reseeded for me are portulacas and petunias.

Hope they reseed good for you Jenn! Can't wait to see everything in full bloom!

You know what Laura....
Alot has to do with I can "finally" reconize
what the "babies look like" so, I'm not pulling
them up thinking they are little weeds....
*

I was out yesterday and found *reconized* a Black~Eyed~Susan,
right next to the girl upstairs steps.
She'll get a great biggg kick out of that...

I tell the story often of when I first starting
gardening and I had one plant.. and I would put some of my compost in around it and it was beautiful... but I would constantly see little green sprouts around it, and I would pull them,
like 3 summers.. then one summer when I was pregnant.. and didn't get around to pulling them..
and when I finally got out and saw them, with their second "true leaves" and IT WAS THAT plants BABIES'/ seeds that had sprouted all around the momma plant, but I thought were weeds..

You very well could be pulling the babies and not know it....
It's amazing what you learn when you're always behind :rolleyes: , that's when I make my most and best discoveries.
HONEST....

Do you grow any or all of those above plants?????

Do you use any PREEN or something like that,
that prevents weeds from growing???
Those won't let seeds that drop, germinate??????

Hey Weezie

I knew you'd say that ...that maybe I was pulling out the babies...but I don't pull out anything but grass and honest to goodness weeds that I'm, of course, familiar with....I'm really familiar with what cosmos and snapdragon babies look like because I grow them from seed..... But honestly I've never had cosmos or snapdragons reseed in my yard....and I always have lots of both.

The cosmos I planted over at moms house reseeded last year, but mine didn't.

I'm not sure why--but you never know, maybe this year some of them will have reseeded.

YES birds would be a very bigggggggg factor....
My mom feeds her's... I don't have any here...
*only cause I just don't have the extra $$ for it,
but they love seeds, I do know they've gone after my Purple Coneflower and strip them clean.


Also, where you have certain plants is why or why not you get them to re~seed..

My johnny jump up's re~seed prolifically away from the house/street/sidewalks.. *tooooo warm for them I'm guessin'.. but in my old garden and new garden, they are almost , obnoxious weeds.
(if they weren't so pretty and soooooooo easily pulled out.. but they are almost a pain in the butt, cause there's sooooo many, and I don't want to pull them..)

Where did you plant your mom's cosmos's to where you planted yours????

My snapdragon's re~seed at the base of my house, where I over winter those dahlia's...*no where's else on the property*

Columbines, Foxgloves, Hollyhocks are all on their own... they go the way of the wind, and that's where they grow.. I never touch them, ever.

Hi Hisgirl too,
ANNUALS DO NOT ALL RESEED. Dont be miss led..
Pick the seed when they are mature and dry and save them.. That is the cheapest and sure way to go.

That is why we have seed SWAPP..HUH GUYS AND GIRLS.

DODGE

Dodge is correct..
And not all seedlings that would re~seed for one gardener, in a certain area will re~seed for another gardener in another area..

example... my snapdragon's ONLY re~seed by an area of my house that can over winter certain things because of something called a micro climate.

Or if I have a plant, say like a Foxglove that re~seeds for me here, zone 5, it may not re~seed for someone in say growing zone 9 or 10, because it's too hot for it...