7 Easiest Flowers to Grow for Beginner Gardeners – It's Almost Impossible to Go Wrong

Gardeners love flowers and most of us prefer blooms that are not too hard to grow. They provide the same vibrant color and pollinator appeal as those that are difficult, but caring for easy to grow flowers is so much simpler.

While some gorgeous types of flowers require constant attention, others seem to grow themselves. You can find both annuals and perennials to fill your backyard with beauty and please local bees and butterflies without breaking your back. Though these are wonderful low-maintenance flowers for beginners, even experienced gardeners love them as well.

With so many other spring gardening tasks, it helps if your flowers aren’t demanding. So below I’ve selected the easiest flowers to grow with minimal effort. All you have to do is plant the seeds, water your garden, and watch the beauty unfold.

Easy Flowers to Grow

Here’s my personal shortlist of the best easy to grow flowers that are sure to delight you and impress everyone on your block.

1. Petunias

Petunias are wildly popular summer annuals. Their wide, trumpet-shaped blossoms bloom profusely all summer long. When planted after the final frost in spring, they reach their full glory by spring’s end, then keep on flowering through summer. They do best with at least 6 hours of direct sunlight.

Here’s the only problem with petunias: too many choices! You can opt for flowers in solid colors (almost every shade of the rainbow other than true blue) or striped or veined blossoms. You can get petunia varieties that produce single blooms and those with double blooms. Then there’s the choice between ruffled or smooth petals.

These fast-growing plants also have fragrant varieties. Some offer a cascading growth habit, others have a mounding growth habit, but all are beautiful.

2. Cosmos

I don’t know a soul who has planted cosmos and not fallen in love with them. I certainly did. The first time I sprinkled seeds in my garden, I learned why they are known as the carefree superstars of the flower garden.

Their flowers look like big, bold, brightly colored daisies, which are great for cut flowers. They sit atop tall, wiry stems, which adds a touch of whimsy to any garden. From my very first seeding, I had fabulous cosmos for years because these flowers self-sow and return year after year.

These classic cottage garden plants could not be easier to grow. Simply sprinkle the seeds over your garden soil once all frost danger is past. Even in poor soil, you’ll be rewarded with a cloud of colorful blooms that attract bees, birds, and butterflies. Cosmos thrive in any type of soil as long as they get a full sun exposure. They can handle everything from drought to hot sun to total neglect.

Shop gorgeous cosmos you can grow from seed from Botanical Interests.

3. Impatiens

If cosmos are my go-to for sunny spots, impatiens takes the prize for best shade-loving annual. There are so many varieties of impatiens that you’re sure to find one you love.

But the classic Impatiens walleriana is my favorite, with oodles of five-petaled flowers in bright shades like red, pink, purple, and coral. This variety of impatiens makes a stunning ground cover as well.

It blooms reliably in shade, tolerates summer temperatures, and doesn't mind rain. But keep them out of much direct sun, since it will scorch their leaves. This plant won’t be happy without regular irrigation, but that’s about all you’ll have to do – a small price for fields of beauty. Plant impatiens after your last frost date in spring.

You, your friends, and neighbors won't be the only ones who will love these blossoms. They are a favorite plant of hummingbirds, too.

Grow impatiens from seeds or starts from Burpee for beautiful, easy-care blooms.

3. Zinnias

If you are among the many gardeners who want to see spring flowers yesterday, you can’t do better than plant cheerful zinnias. They grow like overachievers in a hurry, shooting up quickly and blooming with abandon from the final frost of spring to the first frost of fall.

Eyeing these gorgeous flowers – in bold shades of red, orange, pink, and purple – you would never suspect zinnias to be so tough. They are drought-tolerant once established, accept any type of well-draining soil, and repel pests like deer and rabbits.

Easy to grow flowers from seeds, perky zinnias require only minimal care. Plant them in a full-sun location just after the last spring frost and watch them bloom all summer long.

Explore lots of exciting zinnia seeds from Burpee for a low-maintenance garden.

5. Marigolds

Marigolds are another extremely popular bedding flower. And you’ll love them for the same reasons everybody else does: they are bright, lovely, and easy to grow.

When planted after the final freeze of springtime, these flowers grow fast from seed, achieving their full size by late spring and they keep on going until the first fall freeze.

Want flowers in the garden earlier? Plant marigolds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last spring frost, then transplant when all frost danger is past. Alternatively, you can find packs of starts at almost any nursery in spring.

Their pompom blossoms come in a happy variety of warm tones from deep gold to orange to canary yellow. They are not only easy-care and largely pest free, marigolds repel pests from other plants. They thrive with little attention, are drought tolerant when mature, and thrive in any well-draining soil.

Shop pretty, pest-repellent marigolds from Botanical Interests.

6. Catmint

Catmint is a member of the mint family, which means it's extremely easy to grow. It's a drought-tolerant perennial herb with silvery-blue foliage and spikes of purple, white, or pink flower spikes.

These ornamental herbs love a full sun location. The flowers aren’t fragrant, but they still are magnets for pollinators. The foliage has a spicy smell that keeps deer and rabbits away.

Start catmint seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last spring frost. Transplant in spring, after any chance of frost has passed. The flowers bloom from early summer through the season. You can refresh plants by cutting them back after the first blooms.

Catmint is an easy to grow flower, but requires irrigation until established. Water multiple times a week the first week after transplant, then once a week until established.

Pre-order catmint plants from Nature Hills Nursery now so you'll be ready to plant as soon as the weather warms.

7. Black-Eyed Susans

If you want an easy to grow flower that offers cottage charm but will turn heads, consider the black-eyed Susan. Its yellow, daisy-like flowers with dark center disks are a siren song to butterflies in summer and its seed heads attract songbirds in fall. This garden staple offers big meals of nectar and pollen to bumblebees, butterflies, and moths all summer.

Black-eyed Susan has all the easy-care and pollinator-friendly traits of a wildflower because it is native to the Midwest. Sow seeds outside after the last frost of spring the first year. After that, this plant self-seeds without any need for help.

These black-eyed Susan seeds from Botanical Interests practically grow themselves.