This compilation of some of my favorite volunteers is intended to plant a seed, so to speak: to inspire you to look around your friends’ gardens and through seed catalogs with fresh eyes.
Pay attention to each plant’s method for seed dispersal to better understand how these self-sowers should behave in your garden. Seeds that drop like stones generally germinate in the same location every season unless we inadvertently—or deliberately—transport them elsewhere. Other may be forcibly ejected, round enough to roll away, bounced out by the wind, or tossed by birds who are very messy eaters. Those scattered seeds usually do not land too far away but will manage to find surprising new territory. Seeds with wings or silk that catch on air currents also find bare ground in unexpected vacancies, but depending on the strength of the breeze, could blow into your neighbor’s yard instead. I have not included plants with seeds encased in berries beloved by birds because those will end up planted miles away.
Some plants produce hundreds of seeds per flower, others just one. That along with their viability and germination rate, will affect how prolific and reliable they will be in your garden. Plants will also be more generous in some gardens than others depending on the specific conditions. Jot your own observations in the margin. Some of my favorite self-sowers are dangerously opportunistic in certain locations. Not every state has an invasive species database so if a plant you like is on a neighboring state’s list, think twice before welcoming it.
This winter as you pore over your pile of seed catalogs and attend seed swaps, read and listen between the lines. Scan for words and phrases like reseeds, freely (or politely) self-sows, naturalizes, cottage garden, and old-fashioned. And notice how your garden grows more interesting and colorful with each plant you choose.
ANISE HYSSOP
Agastache foeniculum
Perennial | Zones 4 to 11
DESCRIPTION Midsummer through late summer, dusty-blue flower spikes—attracting every bee, hummingbird, and butterfly—top long-legged (2 to 5 ft. tall) licorice-scented stems. Allow this North American wildflower to grow in meadow-like drifts with native grasses and coneflowers, or as an architectural statement in an herb garden.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and average, well-drained soil. Drought tolerant. Goldfinch and the wind help scatter the tiny seeds. Cut stems back by half in late spring for bushier growth. Deadheading encourages heavier continuous bloom, but be sure to leave some seedheads standing for winter structure.
Allium schoenoprasum
CHIVES
Allium schoenoprasum and mint growing together
at the edge of a vegetable garden.
Perennial | Zones 5 to 11
DESCRIPTION Grassy tufts of 12- to 18-in. tall chives, native throughout Europe and North America, bloom in early summer with pinkish purple bundles of flowers. Traditional in vegetable beds and herb gardens, they are also excellent aphid-repelling companions for roses. Garlic chives (A. tuberosum, zones 4 to 8) bloom much later, toward the end of summer. Their large (2-in. wide) white star-flowered clusters become even more interesting when they shed their petals and form pepper-flake seeds cupped in beige tissue paper. Both species are entirely edible and their flowers make beautiful garnish on soup and salad.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and average, well-drained soil. Seeds drop and drift. Divide large clumps of both species in early spring to keep them healthy and productive. Chives will sprout fresh leaves if entire clumps are cut to the ground after flowering.
PRINCE’S FEATHER, RED AMARANTH
Amaranthus cruentus in a border at Bedrock Gardens
in New Hampshire.
Annual
DESCRIPTION Cultivated across tropical regions for its grain, this plant is also a late-summer showoff in ornamental gardens (6-ft. tall beet-red plumes top stalks of red-veined green or burgundy foliage). Grow prince’s feather in a cutting garden with zinnias or transplant seedlings to the back of a sunny border with nicotiana and dinnerplate dahlias. Its cousin, love-lies-bleeding (A. caudatus) has extremely weird, drooping cascades of ropey tassels and needs to be propped up on a fence or tied to stakes to keep them from coiling on the ground.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and moist soil. Seeds drop. Seedlings emerge after the soil warms and are recognizably red tinged.
Ammi majus
FALSE QUEEN ANNE’S LACE, BISHOP’S FLOWER
Ammi majus and pink peony poppy.
Annual
DESCRIPTION White cut-lace umbels (flat flower clusters) like Grandma’s curtains appear atop green fretwork foliage to 4 ft. tall early in the summer and attract all sorts of bees and butterflies. Sow its romance into a rose garden, or let it form a veil around anise hyssop, sea holly, and delphinium.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and rich, moist soil. Seeds drop. A. majus will go to seed quickly as the heat of summer hits so make sure to allow its heat-loving but less-graceful replacement, A. visnaga ‘Green Mist’, to seed itself around too—its foliage is more feathery but dense and its lace flowers are made with tighter knots.
COLUMBINE, GRANNY’S BONNET
Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Lime Green’
Perennial | Zones vary
DESCRIPTION There’s one to decorate almost every garden from late spring to early summer. Columbine comes in all colors—even blue (A. caerulea, zones 4 to 7)—with and without the trademark spurs, and grow anywhere from 4 in. to 3 ft. tall from tufted rosettes of finely cut bluish foliage that persists for the whole season. Allow Canada columbine (A. canadensis, zones
3 to 8) with its shooting-star red and yellow blooms to sow beside golden spirea, and ask the demure double-flowered, spurless (A. vulgaris ‘Lime Green’ zones 3 to 8) or A. chrysantha ‘Yellow Queen’ (zones 3 to 9) to stand up in the front row. Different species planted near each other may cross-pollinate to create variations in color, height, and form.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and moist soil. Tiny seeds scatter when brown-bagged seedheads tip over. Columbine leaf-miner insects leave telltale trails through the leaves but do not cause fatal injury.
Asarina procumbens
CLIMBING SNAPDRAGON
Asarina procumbens
Perennial | Zones 6 to 9
DESCRIPTION I fully expect the seeds under magnification to have tiny grappling hooks and rock-climbing harnesses because they evidently love to germinate in impossible rock wall crevices and foundation cracks. Rounded furry leaves with buttercream snapdragon flowers drape and sway no more than 2 in. high and up to 24 in. long from tiny slots.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and scant amounts of well-drained soil. Tiny seeds scatter. Sow starter seeds by blowing them off the palm of your hand into crevices.
MILKWEED
Asclepias tuberosa
Perennial | Zones vary
DESCRIPTION The best reason to let seeds from milkweed family plants blow into the garden is because Monarch butterfly larvae feed on them exclusively. But even if they weren’t an essential native host plant I would encourage butterfly weed (A. tuberosa, zones 4 to 9) because its brilliant 2-ft. tall orange lunar-lander flowers perfectly complement the steel blue of sea holly and make shocking combinations with hot pink sweet William catchfly and golden feverfew. Tender South American cousin, blood flower (A. curassavica, zones 9 to 11), doesn’t return as reliably in colder zones but its two-tone, yellow-topped red flowers are wonderfully gaudy. Swamp milkweed (A. incarnata, zones 3 to 8) is taller at 3 to 4 ft. and eraser-pink; A. incarnata ‘Ice Ballet’ is a more genteel creamy-white.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and average soil. Seedpods become sunset-tinted in fall and split lengthwise before releasing their parachutes. To take control of seeding, collect the seeds right after the pods open, and direct sow in fall or early spring.
Begonia grandis
HARDY BEGONIA
Begonia grandis
Perennial | Zones 6 to 9
DESCRIPTION Translucent olive-green off-center hearts with red veins and backsides rise on 1- to 2-ft. tall red stems out of the shade garden in spring. From late summer to frost bubblegum-pink or white flowers with yellow centers open from nodding clamshell buds. Encourage hardy begonia to pick up where spring ephemerals leave off around astilbes, hostas, and ferns and it will steal the shade garden’s show whenever it is backlit by the sun.
FINE PRINT Prefers partial shade to shade, and moist, slightly acidic soil. Hardy begonias self-propagate by dropping bulbils (clones) from the leaf axils as well as seeds. Transplant soon after they emerge in late spring or early summer.
Calamintha nepeta subsp. nepeta
CALAMINT
Calamintha nepeta subsp. nepeta
Perennial | Zones 4 to 9
DESCRIPTION Tufted mounds of 12- to 18-in. tall, deep green aromatic leaves are topped from midsummer on with clouds of white to pale bluish flower spires that never need deadheading. This doesn’t have its mint cousins’ reputation for thuggishness but in my garden it has spread both rhizomatously and by seed to form a nebulous groundcover around beach roses and kniphofia.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and average, well-drained soil. Drought tolerant. Seeds drop. Use extra seedlings and offshoots as bee-friendly fillers in containers. Cut stems to the ground in late fall or early spring.
Cleome hassleriana
SPIDER FLOWER, CAT’S WHISKERS
Cleome hassleriana
Annual
DESCRIPTION What was Grandma smoking? Cleome is a traditional back-row cottage garden plant but the foliage is suspicious looking and the flower is far out. White, pink, or purple petals, depending on variety, continuously open into oval flares from cell-tower buds and send their stamens and then tubular seedpods out like whiskers that work their way down the stalk, even as the flower rises to its full 5 ft. Allow the sticky and spiny brutes to sow themselves out of your way against a fence or hedge that displays their radical structure in silhouette.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and average soil. Seeds scatter as they pop out of pods. Cleome becomes robust and well-branched with water and rich soil. To stunt its growth, give it less love.
JOB’S TEARS
Coix lacryma-jobi
Annual grass
DESCRIPTION This plant might bring out the obsessive seed saver in you. Strappy corn-like grass-green blades growing 18 to 36 in. tall are interrupted at intervals by unnoticeable flowers, followed by bangles of shiny tear-shaped beads that arch outwards and turn from apple-green to brown, black, and gray. Collect them for the satisfying clack of a pocketful, to string them into bracelets, or to guarantee another generation. This slender plant is best wedged in between sturdier ones like black-eyed Susan and echinops.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and average soil. Seeds drop. Soak or scarify heavy beads (lightweight ones are empty) to speed the germination process when starting seeds indoors.
Consolida ajacis
LARKSPUR
Consolida ajacis
Annual
DESCRIPTION If delphinium is unreliable in your garden, try larkspur. The foliage is more finely feathery and the fully double flowers—pink, white and lavender, or deep purple-blue with long spurs that hover off the stem like butterflies—are daintier. But en masse, the delicate 1- to 3-ft. spires of poor man’s delphinium make a luxurious early to midsummer show. Thin seedlings to about 3 in. apart and pair them with California poppies and apricot-colored roses.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and rich, well-drained soil. Tiny seeds scatter. Larkspur is a cool-season annual that burns out in summer’s heat. For a repeat show, stratify seeds for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator and start them in the cool dark. After germination, give the seedlings plenty of light before planting them to fill late summer gaps.
WHITE CORYDALIS
Corydalis ochroleuca
Evergreen perennial | Zones 6 to 8
DESCRIPTION White corydalis doesn’t seem to care whether it grows out of a rock wall crevice or on a wide patch of ground but it looks best tucked by itself into a cranny. Wherever it grows it will fill its space with 12-in. tall bluish green eyelet-lace foliage and early-summer sprays of tiny tubular flowers with a flared face tinged with green and yellow. White corydalis’ cousin, yellow corydalis (C. lutea, zones 5 to 8) blooms on and off all summer. Fern-leaf corydalis (C. cheilanthifolia, zones 6 to 8) might be mistaken for a fern if it weren’t for its spikes of banana yellow flowers in early summer.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to shade, and rich, well-drained soil. Tiny seeds scatter. Saved seeds need warm and cold stratification to germinate. Transplant seedlings in spring into tree root notches and against rock outcrops.
Cynara cardunculus
CARDOON
Cynara cardunculus
Perennial | Zones 7 to 10
DESCRIPTION Cardoon is like an artichoke on steroids. Grow it for 3-ft. wide verdigris leaves that provide focal points as elegant as bronze sculptures and because the bees love to circle their 3- to 6-ft. tall purple thistle-like air traffic control towers. If left standing through fall, the flowers fade to chocolate-brown seedheads topped by downy cushions.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and average soil. Seeds blow. New plants and offshoots bloom their second year. Despite a deep taproot, they may be transplanted in spring. Give cardoon space to keep its arching leaves from flattening or shading out more delicate neighbors. To control reseeding, cut stalks down before seedheads self-destruct over the winter. INVASIVE in California.
WILD BLEEDING HEART, FERN-LEAF BLEEDING HEART
Dicentra eximia
Perennial | Zones 3 to 8
DESCRIPTION While most bleeding hearts go dormant after their exuberant spring show, wild bleeding heart keeps on trucking. Diminutive tufts of delicately cut blue-gray leaves growing 6 to 20 in. tall are topped almost continuously by tiny heart-shaped flowers that take a rest only during the hottest weeks. Encourage this eastern United States native to self-sow through a woodland glade with creeping phlox, hostas, and true ferns.
FINE PRINT Prefers partial shade, and rich, moist soil. Ants help distribute dropped seeds which will germinate the following spring after both warm and cold periods of stratification. Seeds need light to germinate.
Digitalis purpurea
COMMON FOXGLOVE
Digitalis purpurea
Biennial or short-lived perennial | Zones 4 to 8
DESCRIPTION The presence of these open-mouthed tubular flowers in white, pink, apricot, and purple (mostly purple) arranged on one side of 3- to 6-ft. tall gracefully arching stems makes every early-summer shade combination of heuchera, hosta, and geranium much more interesting. Yellow foxglove (D. grandiflora, perennial, zones 3 to 8) only grows to about 3 ft. tall and returns less abundantly, but blooms longer into the summer than common foxglove.
FINE PRINT Both species prefer partial shade and average soil and are entirely poisonous unless administered by your doctor to treat heart problems. Seeds drop and need light to germinate. Sow in early spring and transplant seedlings in the fall to bloom the following summer. Purplish seedlings will have purple blooms. Common foxglove is INVASIVE in California, Oregon, and Washington.
COMMON TEASEL
Dipsacus fullonum seedheads caught in autumn spiderwebs.
Biennial | Zones 5 to 8
DESCRIPTION In my garden, common teasel behaves beautifully, attracting bees with its 6-ft. tall towers topped by pale green barbed eggs ringed in pollen-heavy lavender flowers that open in sequence from the center up and down. I rely on their sturdy architecture long after the flowerheads and stalk turn a crispy beige, and
I love watching goldfinch snag seeds.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and
average soil. Seeds scatter and all that land on bare
earth germinate in spring. Taprooted seedlings remain
a ground-level rosette for their first season and are easy to remove by hand or hoe. Transplant small in late
spring. Second-year plants become as spiny as thistle. INVASIVE in California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Alternative: Canadian burnet (Sanguisorba canadensis).
PURPLE LOVEGRASS, TUMBLEWEED GRASS
Eragrostis spectabilis
Perennial grass | Zones 5 to 8
DESCRIPTION Bone-straight blades that fan out in all directions from a central point are separated and nearly completely hidden in late summer by a cloud of 18- to 24-in. purplish red inflorescence that catches diamond-like dew. The low-to-the-ground muffin shape of this North American grass is perhaps not as graceful as other ornamental grasses that toss in the wind, but it makes a misty complement for the solidity of fall-blooming stonecrop and asters.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and poor, dry to average soil. The seedheads detach in fall and winter and blow around the garden like tiny tumbleweeds; it also spreads slowly by rhizomes. Cut blades to the ground in late winter or early spring.
Erigeron karvinskianus ‘Profusion’
FLEABANE
Erigeron karvinskianus ‘Profusion’
Perennial | Zones 7 to 11
DESCRIPTION Fleabane evidently loves tight confines like rock walls and pavement cracks where its profusion of dime-sized multicolored daisies (yellow-centered white fading to deep pink) make a frothing mound (8 to 12 in. tall × 2 ft. wide) that softens hard edges. Let it flow down slopes around sedum and lavender.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial midday shade, and average, well-drained soil. Seeds blow. It will happily seed itself into containers, to spill over the sides and flower on and off all winter indoors. To survive or reseed outdoors it needs sharp winter drainage. Seeds need light to germinate.
SEA HOLLY
Eryngium planum with a red admiral butterfly and betony.
Perennial | Zones 5 to 9
DESCRIPTION I have counted at least a dozen different species of bee and wasp working sea holly’s cobalt blue thimbles. The flowers appear on well-branched, blue-washed, prickly stems (24 to 36 in. tall) from a basal rosette of leathery deep green leaves and turn beige from the top down as seeds ripen. Stems have weak ankles and may need to be propped against a fence, or a sturdy clump of butterfly weed or Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum ×superbum).
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and poor to average, well-drained soil. Leave ornamental seedheads standing into fall or winter to give seeds a chance to drop and scatter. Transplant taprooted seedlings in early spring while they are still small.
Eschscholzia californica
CALIFORNIA POPPY
Eschscholzia californica dotted brightly among Kalimeris incisa ‘Blue Star’
Annual
DESCRIPTION There’s nothing as cheerful or as persistent as a poppy. Over-saturated silky orange, yellow, red, pink, or white cups that open and close with the sun, look almost too large for their delicate gray fern-leaf foliage that stretches to 12 in. Give this western wildflower the opportunity to weave itself around euphorbia and blue fescue and bloom its heart out from late spring well into summer and fall.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and poor to average, well-drained soil. Tiny seeds pop out of skinny pods. Mixed colors and doubles usually come back as orange and yellow. Plants are taprooted and resentful of transplanting unless moved by careful spade-full in early spring.
SPURGE
Euphorbia longifolia ‘Amjilassa’
Perennials and annuals | Zones vary
DESCRIPTION At least a half dozen garden-worthy species of euphorbia (out of all two thousand) self-sow freely. Perennial E. longifolia ‘Amjilassa’ (zones 6 to 9), grows 2 ft. tall with intensely yellow flower bracts in spring and white-veined leaves. Leave clumps to rebloom (cut spent stems to the ground) or pull most out after blooming to make room for late-blooming annuals and tender perennials. Wood spurge (E. amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’, perennial, zones 6 to 9) colonizes moist shade by rhizome and seed to display 1- to 2-ft. tall cymes of acid-green avant-garde flowers in spring that bring out the best in hosta. North American native snow-on-the-mountain (E. marginata, annual) grows 1 to 3 ft. tall with variegated foliage and showy green and white bracts in midsummer. E. corollata, a native Nebraskan (perennial, zones 4 to 7), has white summer blooms that look just like baby’s breath on stems up to 3 ft. tall.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and well-drained soil. Seeds scatter. Spurge bleeds a sticky latex that can cause angry skin rashes (wear gloves) and severe discomfort if accidentally ingested. The upside is that deer and rabbits leave it alone.
Festuca glauca
BLUE FESCUE
Festuca glauca
Perennial grass | Zones 4 to 8
DESCRIPTION Hedgehog-like clumps of 8- to 12-in. tall thin blue blades are excellent echoes for the blue-gray mounds of catmint and lavender. In late spring to early summer they are spiked with pale green flowers, then tan seedheads that give them a few more inches in height. Some gardeners do not like the look of the flowers and remove them long before they set seed; I prefer to let the flowers remain for the promise of extra plants.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and poor to average, well-drained soil. Seeds drop. After a couple of seasons in the garden, mature clumps die in the center and stop looking as cute. At that point they should be divided or replaced with a spare.
Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’
BRONZE FENNEL
Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’
Perennial | Zones 4 to 9
DESCRIPTION Feathery, licorice-scented, tarnished bronze foliage contrasts with almost everything. Allow seedlings to form a groundcover around spring bulbs, plant it with plume poppy for an elegant textural contrast, or let it shade the lettuce in a midsummer vegetable patch. Wherever bronze fennel grows, it will attract swallowtail butterflies—their caterpillars love it.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and average soil. Seeds scatter. Cut bronze fennel back by half in early summer to stunt its height and delay bloom (relocate caterpillars to lower leaves). A deep taproot makes this plant tough to remove once established so spade out unwanted seedlings before they grow taller than 2 ft. INVASIVE in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington. Alternative: golden Alexander (Zizia aurea).
Helleborus foetidus
STINKING HELLEBORE
Helleborus foetidus
Perennial | Zones 6 to 9
DESCRIPTION Pale green buds rise 2 ft. or so from beneath cloaks of deep green almost black fanned foliage. In late winter to early spring, when almost nothing else will bloom, the buds open into odd red-rimmed dangling green bells. I’ve never abused the leaves to see if they stink when crushed, but I’ve also never leaned down for a whiff of a flower, which are supposed to be pleasantly scented. Plant them as a gothic foil for hosta and heuchera.
FINE PRINT Prefers partial shade, and rich, well-drained, neutral to alkaline soil. Ants help disperse dropped seeds but most germinate the following spring right alongside the parent plants. Seedlings may be easily transplanted in spring.
FLOWER-OF-AN-HOUR
Hibiscus trionum
Annual or short-lived perennial | Zones 10 to 12
DESCRIPTION Flower-of-an-hour always surprises me by weaving its 12- to 30-in. tall stems almost invisibly through the garden to decorate other plants with 2-in. creamy white satellite-dish blooms with bottomless purple centers surrounding golden anthers. Get them started wherever early-summer bloomers like catmint go quiet over late summer and among foliage plants like basil that could use a flower in their ear.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and moist soil. Flowers only open for an hour or two while the sun is out and the temperature is warm. Yesterday’s flowers become green fuzzy, darkly veined balloons before turning a crispy chocolate brown and splitting across the top to reveal and drop ripe seeds.
Lobularia maritima
SWEET ALYSSUM
Lobularia maritima
Annual
DESCRIPTION For such a tiny flower sweet alyssum packs a powerful honey scent that doesn’t require a nose to the ground to detect. Grow the 4- to 8-in. tall × 12-in. wide pillows of purple, lavender, or white flowers in the vegetable garden to repel flea beetles, or at the edges of an ornamental border, along walls, and in pavement cracks.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and average to moist soil. Trim flowers after the first flush to encourage rebloom but allow a few to drop seeds for a succession of seedlings capable of blooming until a killing frost.
HONESTY, MONEY PLANT
Lunaria annua coming up through a Tiger Eyes staghorn sumac.
Biennial | Zones 3 to 9
DESCRIPTION Coarse clumps of large heart-shaped leaves have a weedy look but the second-year flowers and translucent seedpods that fade from blue-green to silver are pretty enough to justify waiting out their awkward phase. The purple cruciform flowers that top its 36-in. tall stems in spring are the perfect complement to acid-green spurge and emerging Tiger Eyes staghorn sumac foliage.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and average soil. The seedpods are essential for dried flower arrangements in winter, but leave a few in the garden
so seeds can drop and blow into new combinations.
INVASIVE in Oregon.
Lupinus
LUPINE
Perennial | Zones vary
DESCRIPTION Although lupines come in a full-spectrum of colors, nothing compares with the indigo blues of the East Coast’s wild lupine (L. perennis, zones 4 to 8), Texas bluebonnet (L. texensis, annual), California’s silver lupine (L. albifrons, zones 9 to 10), and the large-leaved lupine of the western United States (L. polyphyllus, zones 5 to 8), parent of 4-ft. tall Russell hybrids. Vertical flower spikes in early summer provide structure for poppies and spring meadow flowers, and their fanned palmate leaves display dew like mercury. Lupines also fix atmospheric nitrogen to improve poor soil.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and average, well-drained soil (L. polyphyllus prefers moist conditions). Seeds scatter, ejected from blackened peapods. Taproots make transplanting difficult so move seedlings young. To maintain variability in multicolored Russell hybrids remove dominant-gene-laden blue flowers prior to pollination.
A reverted Lupinus Russell hybrid.
ROSE CAMPION
Lychnis coronaria
Biennial or short-lived perennial | Zones 3 to 8
DESCRIPTION Woolly gray 2- to 3-ft. tall stems are topped with loud, super-saturated cerise pink disks—this is the kind of color that would be in poor taste if it appeared in our trouser drawer. But when rose campion seeds itself alongside lavender, red roses, orange butterfly weed, or golden feverfew it gives the garden, and any expectations we might have of cultured elegance, a terrific kick in the pants. For quiet gardens and color-shy gardeners, choose toned-down cultivars with white and paler pink flowers.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and average soil. Tiny seeds drop. First-year seedlings are easy to transplant anytime; move second-year seedlings in early spring.
Meconopsis cambrica
WELSH POPPY
Meconopsis cambrica
Perennial | Zones 6 to 10
DESCRIPTION Not everyone has the right conditions to grow Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia) but its Welsh cousin is much easier to please. Wrinkled yellow to orange cups dance on 18-in. stems in the slightest breeze from spring to fall. The bright flowers are also a pretty shade garden companion to hosta, lady’s mantle, and heuchera.
FINE PRINT Prefers partial shade, and average to moist soil. Seeds drop and scatter when tiny flaps open at the top of torpedo-shaped pods. Beware the plant’s taproot, which can rudely insert itself inside the crown of other plants and resprout if snapped. Evict squatters while they’re young and easy to pluck out whole.
DOTTED MINT, SPOTTED BEEBALM
Monarda punctata
Annual or short-lived perennial | Zones 4 to 9
DESCRIPTION From a distance, dotted mint’s miniature pagoda flowers are pale and textural, particularly when paired with black-eyed Susans and ornamental grasses. Up close you’ll get lost in the intricacy of purplish pink bracts, tinged green at the tips, separating whorls of speckled yellow flowers. The 12- to 36-in. tall towers of these North American natives look even more exotic capped by hungry goldfinch.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and average, well-drained soil. Seeds drop and scatter. Seedlings are recognizable for downy-soft square stems and narrow leaves delicately edged and veined in hot pink. Transplant them in spring or fall.
Myosotis sylvatica
FORGET-ME-NOT
Myosotis sylvatica and a variegated Japanese sedge.
Biennial or short-lived perennial | Zones 5 to 9
DESCRIPTION In mid to late spring, tiny cerulean flowers with daffodil-yellow eyes grow 5 to 12 in. from tuffets of basal foliage and glow as if the sky itself was thrown over the garden’s beds. Pair it with the late-blooming green-streaked Tulipa ‘Artist’ (or another orange tulip) and use it as a placeholder for summer annuals and tender perennials by removing entire plants after they have gone to seed.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and average soil. Seeds drop. Remove plants after blooming and disperse their seeds with a flick of the wrist. (Seeds will also stick to cuffs and fur, scattering as you and the dog travel through the garden.) Be careful to avoid weeding out all of next year’s seedlings, which germinate quickly after dispersal. Seedlings can be transplanted in fall or early the following spring. INVASIVE in Wisconsin.
FLOWERING TOBACCO
Nicotiana ‘Lime Green’
Annual
DESCRIPTION White flowering fragrant N. alata and N. sylvestris have large, smothering, sticky basal leaves but delicate 5-ft. spires of white trumpets (N. sylvestris flowers are clustered at the tippy-top) that open to waft sweetness at night. N. mutabilis ‘Bella’ stands 3 to 4 ft. tall with multicolored flowers that fade from almost white to a rosy pink. N. langsdorffii also has tall stems abundantly dangled with small apple-green bells beloved by hummingbirds. N. ‘Lime Green’ has outward-facing green flowers and stands only 1 to 3 ft. tall. Plant tall species at the back of a border to come up between anise hyssop and amaranth.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and average soil. Tiny seeds drop and scatter; plants also return from the roots after mild winters. Cut stems back hard after flowering to encourage reblooming but come late summer, allow some seedheads to form. Cross-pollination produces interesting hybrids and variations.
Nigella damascena
LOVE-IN-A-MIST, DEVIL-IN-A-BUSH
Nigella damascena
Annual
DESCRIPTION Cobalt blue—or white or pink—flowers with twist-tie centers and a tangled ruff of wiry foliage are bizarre but the swollen red and green jester-capped seedpods might have been designed by Tim Burton. The 2-ft. tall plants are slender and feathery enough to fit in among daisies and roses that bloom in early summer and they positively vibrate with California or Atlantic poppies. Use the Willy Wonka seedheads to lend a bit of strangeness to floral arrangements. They dry well but lose their color.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and poor to average soil. Seeds drop when the pods turn beige and split at the top. Transplant seedlings while they are young and thin them to 2 to 3 in. apart for showier blooms and pods.
BLUE SPICE BASIL
Ocimum basilicum ‘Blue Spice’
Annual
DESCRIPTION Some gardeners love blue spice basil for its vanilla scent and sweet flavor in fruit salads but the bees and I prefer to keep its fuzzy leaves and pale purple flowers in the garden. The small plants (12 to 18 in. tall) willingly fill in around annual grasses and dahlias and go perfectly well with beebalm, yarrow, and calendula in an herb garden.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and average soil. Seeds drop. The flowers don’t need to be deadheaded to keep the plant productive—they’ll keep going from midsummer to frost.
Orlaya grandiflora
WHITE LACE FLOWER, MINOAN LACE
Orlaya grandiflora with California poppies.
Annual
DESCRIPTION Tatted doilies aren’t just for maiden aunts. This plant combines the featheriness of false Queen Anne’s lace (without their height) and the flower structure of lace cap hydrangea (large outer petals surround small true flowers). With 18- to 24-in. tall stems, they make excellent cut flowers and add elegance to early-summer garden combinations of California poppies, sweet William catchfly, and Mexican feather grass. Frequent visitors to the flowers include bees as well as syrphid flies—terrific tiny pollinators whose larvae eat aphids.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and average soil. Seeds drop and scatter by attaching like Velcro to clothing and fur. Pull plants after they have gone to seed (save some first) and insert late-summer bloomers to fill their vacancies.
Papaver atlanticum
ATLANTIC POPPY, MOROCCAN POPPY
Short-lived perennial | Zones 5 to 7
DESCRIPTION Orange flowers have a way of making every other color in the garden sparkle. Let the wrinkled, apricot-orange flowers of Atlantic poppy shimmer delicately 12 to 24 in. above sky blue forget-me-nots. Gray-green basal rosettes, stems, and skinny seedpods begin to predominate as flowering slows down after early summer.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and average soil. Drought tolerant. Seeds drop and bounce. For continuous bloom, deadhead down to fresh buds, or yank spent stems from the base to make way for new growth. Alternatively, remove entire clumps to make room for planting new annuals and tender perennials. They resent transplanting, so move them young.
Papaver somniferum
OPIUM POPPY, PEONY POPPY
Papaver somniferum
Annual
DESCRIPTION Grow opium poppies for the one-time-only large flowers that unfold out of small nodding buds in early summer. The 4-ft. tall stems of silvery gray-green ruffled foliage bear 4-in. flowers, each one decorated dawn to dusk with bees and syrphid flies. After the flowers shatter, their ornamental seedpods may be peeled open by addicted goldfinch.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and average soil. Drought tolerant. Hundreds of tiny seeds drop out of open vents in browned seedpods. Seeds may live for years and pop up unexpectedly in freshly disturbed soil. Different varieties will cross-pollinate to produce mongrels and fabulous hybrids. It is illegal in the United States to “knowingly” grow opium poppies. But you didn’t hear that from me.
Perilla frutescens var. crispa
SHISO, BEEFSTEAK PLANT
The burgundy foliage of Perilla frutescens var. crispa picks up the pink in ‘Baby Bella’ flowering tobacco.
Annual
DESCRIPTION It is often hard to decide what to do with an ornamental edible. Enjoy it for its looks, or pull and eat it? Shiso self-sows generously into a burgundy carpet that may be left as a weed barrier until you need the space for late-blooming annuals and tender perennials. Just leave a few to grow to maturity as a dark backdrop for spur flower and hummingbird mint. Stems grow 1 to 3 ft. tall and keep their color but the pink autumn flower spires aren’t especially showy.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and moist soil. Seeds drop. Thin seedlings to use as grapefruit-flavored vitamin-rich leaves in salads and sushi or transplant them in early summer. INVASIVE in the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Alternative: purple basil (Ocimum basilicum).
Salvia sclarea
CLARY SAGE
Salvia sclarea var. turkestanica ‘Alba’
Biennial or perennial | Zones 5 to 9
DESCRIPTION Clary sage’s large textured gray-green leaves are nothing compared to those of silver sage (S. argentea), but its flowers are spectacular. Abundant sprays of luminous pink to purple-tinged or green-tinged white flowers with wide showy bracts rise at least 3 ft. from the ground and dominate the limelight for weeks in early summer. Pair it with feathery love-in-a-mist or let this traditional medicinal self-sow in an herb garden alongside lavender and beebalm.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and dry to average, well-drained soil. Seeds drop. Transplant seedlings in spring. Cut spent stems to the ground after seeds ripen and give a flick of the wrist to scatter them. INVASIVE in Washington.
SWEET WILLIAM CATCHFLY, NONE-SO-PRETTY
Silene armeria
Perennial | Zones 5 to 8
DESCRIPTION Regardless of sweet William catchfly’s usefulness as a flytrap (to me their 2-ft. tall stems feel more rubbery than sticky) I’m stuck to their intensely purplish pink pinwheel flower clusters that clash so brilliantly with chrome-yellow euphorbias, orange California poppies, red roses, and cobalt blue love-in-a-mist.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to light shade, and average, well-drained soil. Seeds drop. Commonly described as blooming in late summer, I have always observed its display in early to midsummer. Transplant in spring.
Stipa tenuissima
Stipa tenuissima, syn. Nassella tenuissima
MEXICAN FEATHER GRASS
Perennial grass | Zones 7 to 11
DESCRIPTION Tufts of the finest green-gold filaments wave in the slightest breeze like long hair underwater. Early-summer flowers add volume to its tresses, which turn blond by mid to late summer. Allow Mexican feather grass to grow wherever its movement will offer a contrast to less kinetic companions such as yarrow or spurge.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and average, well-drained soil. Seeds can blow but many drop because as the seedheads dry, they tangle, mat, and weigh the clump down. Comb its “hair” with your fingers to capture seeds and open the grass back up to the wind. Where hardy, do not cut it back like other grasses in spring. Transplant seedlings any time. INVASIVE in California, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Alternative: purple three awn (Aristida purpurea).
Stylophorum diphyllum
CELANDINE POPPY
Stylophorum diphyllum
Perennial | Zones 5 to 8
DESCRIPTION Celandine poppy, a native to eastern United States, should get at least partial credit for yellow being spring’s color. The super-saturated sunshiny flowers, opening from fuzzy buds atop lobed gray-green foliage on 12-in. tall stems, are timed to follow the daffodils and partner with Virginia bluebell (Mertensia virginica), lungwort (Pulmonaria), and foamflower.
FINE PRINT Prefers partial shade to shade, and rich, moist soil. Seedpods nod their heads and open like bell-bottoms to drop tiny seeds dispersed by ants. Like most other spring ephemerals, celandine poppies go dormant during hot dry summers; if your woodland garden stays moist, you can trick them into an eternal spring by deadheading flowers before they go to seed.
JEWELS OF OPAR
Talinum paniculatum
Perennial grown as an annual | Zones 13 to 15
DESCRIPTION Succulent clusters of paddle-shaped leaves send up see-through stems dressed only in airy sprays of tiny pink afternoon flowers that turn into shiny red-purple polka-dots that hang on and turn brown only as the seeds inside ripen. Allow swaths of this southern and tropical American wildflower to form along the front of borders, transplant a few into containers, and use the stems as bobbles in flower arrangements.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and dry to average, well-drained soil. Seeds drop. The cultivar ‘Kingswood Gold’ has bright chartreuse leaves and comes true from seed. Fleshy seedlings are easy to recognize whether they are grass-green or yellow-green. Transplant them young.
Tanacetum parthenium
FEVERFEW
Tanacetum parthenium ‘Aureum’
Short-lived perennial | Zones 4 to 9
DESCRIPTION In midsummer, tiny daisies dot 18- to 24-in. tall stems with aromatic gray-green foliage; golden feverfew (T. parthenium ‘Aureum’) has yellow-green foliage. Let it self-sow into the herb garden as a salute to its medicinal properties—it is used to prevent migraine headaches and relieve arthritis pain. Or because bees avoid it, use it as a buffer along walkways and sitting areas in an otherwise bee-friendly garden.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to partial shade, and dry to average, well-drained soil. Tiny seeds blow. All cultivars are self-fertile, which means that crossing is unlikely. Cut plants back to encourage reblooming. Seeds need light to germinate. Transplant in spring or fall.
MULLEIN
A Verbascum epixanthinum cross.
Biennials and short-lived perennials | Zones vary
DESCRIPTION Grow purple mullein (V. phoeniceum, zones 4 to 8) for its 4-ft. tall spears of wide-open purple, white, or pink flowers reminiscent of delphinium and enjoy the variations that arise in late spring to early summer with each new generation. For vertical action in mid to late summer, grow Turkish mullein (V. bombyciferum ‘Artic Summer’, zones 5 to 9) which has a voluptuously woolly first-year basal rosette and 5-ft. tall spires of yellow flowers; or the 3-ft. tall nettle-leaved mullein (V. chaixii, zones 5 to 9), which also has felted basal leaves and second-year pale yellow flowers with purple centers. As tall as the flower towers are, placement at the front of the border with catmint and creeping Jenny will showcase their low gray rosettes.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and poor, well-drained soil. Seeds drop. Flowers may need to be staked in rich soil. Keep your eyes peeled for hummingbirds who use the soft leaves to line their nests. Common mullein or Aaron’s rod (V. thapsus) is INVASIVE throughout the United States.
Verbena bonariensis
TALL VERBENA, TALL VERVAIN
Verbena bonariensis
Perennial | Zones 7 to 11
DESCRIPTION I roll my eyes at abundant spring carpets of telltale purplish seedlings but I rely on them to grow into latticework screens that frame my views through beds and borders. From early summer to fall, deep purple-green virtually leafless sandpaper stems branch in wide forks topped anywhere from 3 to 5 ft. with purple butterfly landing pads. (A butterfly on a plant always improves my opinion of it.)
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun and average soil. Tiny seeds ripen and drop before flower clusters finish blooming and germinate in endless succession on sunlit soil through the season. Thin seedlings into narrow rows to take advantage of see-through stems. As flowers fade, pull stems out to make way for new. INVASIVE in Georgia and Oregon. Alternative: dotted mint (Monarda punctata).
LABRADOR VIOLET
Viola labradorica
Perennial | Zones 2 to 8
DESCRIPTION Labrador violets are more elegantly refined than their class-clown pansy cousins. They spread via rhizomes and seeds through fully sunny to shady nooks and crannies with small, spurred purple spring flowers dangled over 3- to 6-in. evergreen bouquets of heart-shaped leaves. Leaf color ranges from nearly black-purple to weathered-bronze depending on light and soil conditions. Sister violet (V. sororia, zones 3 to 9), also native to eastern North America, has 6- to 8-in. green leaves, robust enough to pair with hosta and heuchera, and spring flowers in purple or white with a gray-blue throat; the flowers of V. sororia ‘Freckles’ are white with purple flecks. Both species’ leaves feed fritillary butterfly caterpillars.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun to shade, and moist soil. Seeds scatter, ejected from pods. Because insect pollination is unreliable, the showy flowers are replaced in summer with hidden cleistogamous or closed, self-pollinating flowers.
CREEPING ZINNIA, MEXICAN ZINNIA
Annual
DESCRIPTION Despite how easy zinnias are to start from seed, I never expect them to volunteer and that’s why it’s such a thrill to see creeping zinnia (not to be confused with the other creeping zinnia, Sanvitalia procumbens) pop up again. An endless abundance of 1-in. wide white or bright orange daisies dot the 1-ft. tall clump, also studded with narrow mildew-resistant gray-green leaves from emergence to frost.
FINE PRINT Prefers full sun, and average, well-drained soil. Drought tolerant. Seeds drop. Seedlings emerge late, in early summer when the soil is warm. “Self-cleaning” flowers do not need deadheading to look their best.
Zinnia angustifolia with a petunia hybrid and chartreuse licorice vine.
