5 Self-Sowing Flowers That Bloom in Fall – for Easy Autumn Color That Returns Year After Year

We gardeners have enough on our plates in autumn, what with fall cleanup and preparing our gardens for winter. Planting seeds for next year’s flowers can seem like a bridge too far. But there’s an easy way to take that item off your garden to-do list: installing self-sowing flowers.

Self-sowing flowers do their own seeding and return every year. They drop their seeds at the end of the growing season in order to propagate the species. By planting the right flowers today, you’ll get effortless blooms next year. Why not leave the seed sowing to Mother Nature, the original gardener?

Here are the most beautiful self-sowing flowers that bloom in fall for easy autumn color that returns every year.

Self-Sowing Flowers for Autumn

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of self-seeding garden plants that flower in autumn. So setting out a complete list is beyond the scope of a single article. But most of us don’t need dozens of plants to get started.

The following list of plants will fill your garden with a mix of brilliant and beautiful colors that come back year after year without any effort on your part.

1. Black-Eyed Susan

Are black-eyed Susans the most easily recognized of all fall flowers? If not, they’re definitely in the top five. Black-eyed Susans produce yellow golden daisy-like blooms with dark “eyes” in the center from summer through the first frost in fall. The flowers are supremely cheerful, creating a bright and happy display that provides nectar to pollinators like bees and butterflies.

How hard are black-eyed Susans to care for? Plant them in a sunny location in well-draining soil and they don’t need much else. They are drought tolerant and self-sufficient and reseed easily.

The most important matter to keep in mind is to stop deadheading in late summer. Let those seedheads form. They will provide food for wild birds in winter while still self-seeding sufficiently to make the gardener smile next September.

Shop a variety of native black-eyed Susan plants online from American Meadows.

2. Sweet Alyssum

Sweet alyssum is popular with gardeners and pollinators alike thanks to its tiny white or purple flowers that seem to come in wave after wave. This low-growing plant needs a full sun or partial sun location and well-draining soil.

The flowers carry a powerful, sweet fragrance that attracts bees, flower flies, stingless wasps ,and butterflies. They look right at home in cottage gardens or prairie landscapes. In warm regions with mild winters, sweet alyssum can bloom almost all year round. Otherwise, they flower during the entire growing season including fall.

The key to getting alyssum to self-seed is to leave the dry seed cones on the plants starting in late summer. They offer food for the birds and also reseed easily in open soil.

Explore an array of colorful alyssum seeds from Botanical Interests.

3. Borage

Borage, also called starflower, is a fast-growing annual herb with bright blue, star-shaped flowers and fuzzy leaves. It can be considered a crop as well as a flower since the edible leaves have a crisp, cucumber-like flavor. Plus, the charming flowers can also be added to fresh salads for color and flavor.

The flowers appear in summer and keep on blooming into autumn. It’s easy to care for in the garden and so tolerant that it can grow happily in less-than-perfect soil. It is best to place borage in a site with partial or full sun. There is no need to save the seeds since the plant does a fabulous job of self-sowing in milder climates on its own.

You can pick up a packet of organic heirloom borage seeds from the Home Depot.

4. California Poppy

California’s official state flower is a long-blooming, brilliant orange poppy with delicate, blue-green fern-like foliage. California poppy is an exceptional plant that covers fields and wild hillsides throughout the growing season right up through fall. This gorgeous poppy is also a nectar and pollen source for beneficial insects, including native bees and butterflies.

California poppy can grow on almost any well-draining soil regardless of the nutrient content, but you’ll see more flowers when the soil is poor. It does need a full sun exposure. The flowers appear from February to September, with the highest numbers in spring. When the cool season arrives, poppies drop abundant seeds that sprout the following year.

You can buy a colorful mix of California poppy seeds in bulk from Amazon.

5. Cosmos

Can any annual be better than this one? Cosmos produce beautiful blooms in a variety of shades of pink and white. They continue flowering all through the growing season.

These annuals are amazingly easy to grow, self-seed generously, and return the following season with minimal effort. They sit atop the long, slender stems. Do you want them small? Do you prefer them tall? You’ll find varieties of cosmos that top out anywhere from 1-6 feet (0.5-2 m) tall.

Cosmos are happy plants that liven up any landscape. The species is native to Southern and Central America – both warm areas – so it's no surprise that they prefer to be sited in a warm, sunny spot in well-draining soil.

Try these 'Sensation Mix' cosmos from Home Depot for a variety of pink and white blooms.