8 Fling-and-Forget Flower Seeds To Scatter Before Spring Ends for Abundant Blooms Year After Year

Some seeds are so easy to grow, you can sow them directly outside where you want your flowers to flourish. And some seeds are so ridiculously easy to grow, you don’t even need to sow them in the ground! All these glorious flowers grow from seed that needs light to germinate, so you can simply toss it onto the soil. Then all you need do is keep the soil watered, sit back and let Mother Nature work her magic.

I’m growing all these flowers in my garden, precisely because they take so little effort, but the blooms are still fabulous. But it gets even better! All these flowering plants happily self-seed, too, so sow them once and you’ll enjoy blooms for years to come. This also means plants will work their way around your garden, all by themselves, to find the Goldilocks spot with conditions that suit them perfectly, where they'll become even more low-maintenance.

I love to see the surprising places these reseeding blooms unexpectedly pop up, and the cottage-garden abundance they bring to my borders. And it doesn't take long to see results – most of these flowers grow incredibly quickly from seed to bloom. And if you ever feel you’re getting too many of any one plant, just snip the flowers before the seedheads ripen, or pull up unwanted seedlings. You can direct-sow all of these fling-and-forget seeds in June but hurry up before the spring window closes! Which one will suit your garden style best?

Latest Videos From

1. Yarrow

If you like to attract pollinators to your garden, then you seriously should be growing yarrow, also known as Achillea. Its tiny flowers form in clusters, making flat surfaces that bees and butterflies can use as landing pads to access the nectar.

This perennial is such an easy-to-grow, low-maintenance plant in a sunny spot, and is remarkably heat- and drought-tolerant. Once it’s established in your garden, it typically flowers through June and July and, if you remove the faded blooms, it’ll often reward with a second flush in fall. Achillea lasts well as a cut flower and dries really well too, and I hang stems upside down in the garage to use for craft projects. The fern-like foliage is attractive, too.

Because yarrow comes in such varied tones, I like to plant a mix. ‘Summer Berries’, available from Eden Brothers, has dreamy flowers ranging from buttercream through peach to raspberry; ‘Flowerburst Red Shades’ has a stronger palette of rose and scarlet, and is also available from Eden Brothers. Both grow from 2-3 feet tall and are suitable for USDA zones 3-9.

2. Cosmos

I’m a firm believer that every garden should contain Cosmos, as it’s so easy to grow and a single plant can bring hundreds of flowers over a summer. It’s an annual, completing its life cycle in a year but readily self-seeding so more appear year after year – and I always collect a little seed in fall as a back-up, just in case.

There are so many cosmos varieties to choose from, from front-of-border foot-tall dwarf cultivars to airy giants that reach 5 or 6 feet, whose blooms shift like butterflies on a breeze. I adore the delicate lemon tones of Cosmos ‘Lemonade’, available from Burpee, which seem to fill my borders with light. I also grow lots of Cosmos ‘Apricot Lemonade’, available from Eden Brothers, which adds pretty pink and apricot splashes among those lovely lemon petals.

Heat- and drought-tolerant, cosmos produce the most blooms in full sun, and will keep flowering all summer into fall as long as you deadhead. They’re suitable for zones 2-10.

3. Columbine

Also called aquilegia, my kids refer to the columbines in my garden as ‘granny flowers’ but I think their nostalgic look is part of their charm. I adore their delicate rounded foliage as much as their flowers, though the blooms are pretty nice too!

Columbines are perfect for those partially shady spots in your garden that get gentle morning sun but are spared searing afternoon rays. They’re perennials and prefer cooler temperatures so grow best in zones 3 through 9, and though plants only live for 3 or 4 years, you’ll never be short of blooms as they self-seed so readily.

There are varieties that range from 6 inches to four feet high, but my forever favorite is Aquilegia ‘Nora Barlow’, available from Eden Brothers. Its pink and white double blooms are exquisite and last from spring through summer, attracting clouds of butterflies. That this type of columbine was named after Emma Nora Barlow, granddaughter of legendary British botanist and geneticist, Charles Darwin, is neat, too.

4. Strawflowers

After they were used to create all manner of dried flower crafts in the 1970s, strawflowers suffered a fall from favor for many decades. But now they’re back and more popular than ever. New, bigger varieties bring double flowers in a huge range of colors, and it’s so easy to grow a whole load of them with a mix such as this Swiss Giant Mix from Eden Brothers.

I grow Helichrusum bracteatum ‘King Size Salmon’, also available from Eden Brothers, on account of its adorable apricot tone. It’s bigger than most at 3 feet high, and produces lots of blooms on its well-branched stems. I love to run a thumb over its papery petals to hear the satisfying scrunch, and I dry armfuls – there's nothing better to smarten up a Christmas pine wreath.

Strawflowers are very heat- and drought-tolerant so can be grown in zones 2-10. They’re tender perennials so will typically overwinter fine in zones 8-11, but you’ll need to treat them as annuals in colder climates.

5. California Poppies

I sprinkled a packet of California poppy seed in my gravel drive a few years ago and I’ve no idea how the plants survive still, but survive they do. I certainly find Eschsholzia californica far easier to grow than to pronounce its latin name! The classic California poppy, with seed available from Eden Brothers, is a cheery orange. Plenty of cultivars have been bred from it, however, such as the gorgeous yellow ruffles of ‘Yukon Gold’, available from Burpee. At the other end of the spectrum is the quietly elegant ivory petals of ‘Alba’, also available from Eden Brothers.

Reaching 1-2 feet high and enjoying a spot that sees them basking in sunshine all day, California poppies do best in zones 6-10. In milder climates, these tender perennial plants can live for 2-3 years, but treat this as an annual in colder zones. It readily self-seeds so once it’s made itself at home, you won’t be without it.

6. Foxgloves

Most foxgloves are biennial, so you sow them for flowers the following year. But it’s well worth the wait as once Digitalis purpurea is in your garden, this self-seeder will pop up all over. Foxgloves don’t like temperature extremes so do best in zones 4-9, and prefer dappled or light shade as their leaves can scorch in strong afternoon sun. They do need some sunshine to flower well, though, so don’t plant them in deep shade.

There are so many varieties to choose from but ‘Excelsior Mix’, available from Burpee, is a great choice, bringing spires of pastel pink, purple and cream flowers that pollinators love. The sturdy lower lip of the flower makes a good spot for clumsy bumblebees to land, and the tubular shape of the blooms means they’re appealing to hummingbirds and long-tongued moths. Growing to 4-5 feet tall, there’s plenty of nectar to go round, too.

Foxgloves are toxic to humans and pets.

7. Fivespot

These dainty darlings only grow a foot high, but just look at them! With each veined petal accented with a violet spot, Nemophila maculata is as pretty as pretty can be and a must for a cottage garden. Pollinators will appreciate the flowers as much as you do, and though they’re an annual, they readily self-seed to return year after year.

Though fivespot can be grown in zones 2-11, it doesn’t enjoy high summer heat. In June, it’s best to only sow in cooler zones as seeds won't typically germinate in temperatures over 65°F. In warmer climates, wait till fall to scatter seed for flowers the following spring. Similarly, your zone will dictate where this plant flourishes: it does well in full sun or partial shade in cooler climates but prefers to have afternoon shade in hotter areas. This little baby does need to be kept moist to flower well, so a little shade also helps to retain water in the soil for longer, saving you from having to irrigate too often.

Seeds are available from Eden Brothers.

8. Love-in-a-Mist

Also known as Nigella, Love-in-a-Mist is a wonderful plant to have in your garden, not just for the flowers but the fabulous seed pods and feathery foliage. It belongs to the buttercup family so it’s ridiculously easy to grow, and though an annual, self-seeds easily. Grown in cottage gardens for centuries and adored by pollinators, Love-in-a-Mist may be small, growing to just 1-2 feet in a sunny position, but it still catches your eye.

Most are a beautiful cornflower blue but new cultivars have expanded the colors available from blush pink to a deep purple. I’m currently growing ‘African Bride’, available from Amazon, and its white petals highlight its structural central boss, and the inflated seed pods mature to a dramatic purple.

Love-in-a-Mist grows well in all zones.

How to Get Great Germination

The trick to getting good germination with all these flowering plants is keeping the seed moist for the all-important first few weeks. Because they need to be sown on the soil surface, they dry out more easily than seeds sown in the ground. But there are a few very easy ways to make sure they stay hydrated. First of all, clear any weeds from the soil as these compete for water. Next, rake the soil into a fine tilth as this will help the seeds make contact with as much of the moisture-holding soil as possible. A small hand rake such as this from Amazon makes this easy in an already-planted border or raised bed.

Seeds that germinate best on the soil surface are usually tiny, which means they’re easily washed away. So water the ground thoroughly before sowing. For an even sowing, mixing the seeds with a little dry sand makes it simple to see where you’ve sown. But then just fling the seeds onto the soil! Lightly pressing the seeds onto the soil afterwards ensures excellent seed-to-soil contact – but whatever you do, don't push them into the soil.

It really helps to be able to identify the seedlings so you don’t accidentally pull them up thinking they’re weeds. Many folk sow in rows to overcome this, but I prefer a natural look so I simply sow an extra pinch of seeds next to a marker so I know exactly what’s what.

Then all you need do is keep the area well-watered, using a fine spray at first so as not to wash the seeds away, until the seedlings are around 3 inches high, when you can start to irrigate a little less regularly. If you're adding these seeds to borders and raised beds of perennials, you'll be watering anyway now the weather has warmed up, so it’s no extra work.