hardy perennials & self seeding annuals

Orange_King

Saw these referred to in another thread (thanks ixwood) and this makes more economic sense than buying in plugs that are just for one season.

I have ample numbers of primulas and primroses and have mastered the collection of seeds from Chinese Snapdragon and Calendula (Orange King). Also have plenty of nastursiums.

Can anyone recommend other plants that generate new plants for you free of charge by giving seeds or by being split?

:beer:

kimmee

Two that I can think of is pansies (you can harvest the seeds) and aqualeiga which self seeds and you end up getting loads of plants. I think poppies self seed too as I have had lots growing for the last couple of years at the side of my garage and I certainly haven't sown them there!

Oh yes, and buddliea self seeds too, I a huge buddliea and a couple of little ones nearby which must have come from the huge one as, again, I haven't planted them or sown them.

HTH

conradmum

Self-seeders in my garden are verbena bonariensis, forget-me-nots, love-in-a-mist, Siberian wallflowers, snapdragons, oregano (?!), scutellaria something or other (I got some seeds from the RHS years ago and have just spent the morning pulling out the seedlings, again!) sedum something or other (ditto previous), astrantia major, knautia, and one or two others I can't remember the name of but will let you know if they come to me!

Spreaders are a perennial sunflower called Lemon something, woodruff and phlomis russeliana and asphodel. Again, there's another thing I'm looking at right now which is brilliant plant because it's growing somewhere that nothing else would succeed but I can't for the life of me remember its name.

I have clumps of primroses too, are they gorgeous? And violets.

There are also the weeds but I find it's best not to mention them. :cool:

ixwood

All perennials will multiply/spread if they're happy and all can be propagated one way or another.

I like my plants to be good for something. Beneficial to wildlife, edible, companion, providing fertiliser, medicine, herbal teas etc.

Some good all round plants are Lavender, Hyssop, Lemon Balm and Chamomile. Verbena, Buddleia, Ice Plants and Red Valerian are all good, long flowering, low maintenance wildlife plants.

heynonnynonny

I moved into my house last year which has a front gravel garden with a few bushes etc in, the other week I looked into the garden and 2 pansies have popped up, am over the moon!! I'm guessing they will spread, the gravel can't really be that deep then.

Orange_King

Thanks for those responses - will have to give some of these a go - didn't know pansies would fit the bill!

Particularly like the look of Red Valerian

amcluesent

>or by being split?<

Day Lilies can be split easily IMHO.

SaverSueG

Hi there.

The perennial sunflower is Lemon Queen, it gets quite tall about 5-6 feet in our garden with lots of smallish 3-4" flowers. Its quite late flowering though, best I think in a large herbaceous border and will need staking.

We have centranthus which is similar to red valerian and it self seeds like mad.

So does the verbena boniensaris, I am waiting (impatiently) to see if we still have some as all the old plants seem to have been killed off by the hard frosts - we had at least -12 here in a rural area, have lost quite a lot of stuff.

Honesty is nice and self seeds, also hesperis.

conradmum

Thanks for reminding me of the name of that sunflower, Sue It's a real doer I find, though it doesn't grow as tall in my border. I also wanted to mention hesperis but couldn't remember that name either!

GarnetLady

Okay, stupid question time! I've never noticed pansies seeding, but I'd love to get some if I can. Got some fab ones out front that I rescued from B&Q before Christmas and are now covered in dozens of flowers (supposed to be winter flowering but nobody told the pansies :rotfl:).

So how and when do I get the seeds from them?

Orange_King

Once the flowers start to die, there will be seed pods underneath. Simply remove these and carefully extract the seeds - probably tiny ones too if they are anything like the Snapdragon ones.

Not sure when you should be planting them though - I suppose it should have been maybe January time if they are developing into decent sized plants now.