The "off" season is quite possibly my favourite time of the year. I love planning what I am going grow, researching different varieties, trying to source the seeds I need for the best price, and making my seed starting schedule. I've been in the depths of this process for the past several weeks and so I've decided to share my thoughts on a few of the annuals I've grown from seed that are now on my "to grow forever" list. These annuals were all relatively easy to grow from seed (say, compared to Iceland poppies or lisianthus), had high production, and virtually no pest issues. When I think back to the varieties that just in general seemed "worth it", these are the ones that always come to mind.
Snapdragons. I grew snapdragons for the first time in 2020, and now I will never not grow snapdragons. I had good success with germination and transplanting, and because I pinched all of them I was able to get several usable stems from each plant. They look great both on their own in a straight bunch, or used as the spike element in mixed bouquets. I also personally fell in love with the bubblegum scent of some of the snaps. Last year we grew the chantilly and potomac series, and this year we are growing both of them again as well as adding some madame butterflies to our snapdragons lineup.
Strawflowers. I must admit the only reason why we grew as many strawflowers as we did in 2020 was because I threw them in after our zinnia, marigold, and sunflower crops were all destroyed by slugs. And I am so glad we did because strawflowers ended up being one of our most successful crops of the year. Just like snapdragons, they look great both in a single-variety bunch as well as in mixed bouquets, plus strawflowers get bonus points for being a great dried flower as well. This year we are doubling our strawflower production and adding some fun new colours which I am super excited about.
Cosmos. I definitely have a love/hate relationship with cosmos. I love how easy they are to grow from seed and how incredibly productive they are, but I hate how difficult they can be to harvest and the fact that each individual bloom doesn't have a super long vase life. But ultimately I decided to include them on this list because they truly are the easiest cut flower to grow from seed. Just remember to keep on top of harvesting them! This year I'm narrowing down our cosmos varieties to just a couple that I found to be the most versatile for use in mixed bouquets and I will only be growing a few plants of each of those varieties, which will still be more than enough!
Rudbeckia. Last year we grew Sahara rudbeckia, and although they didn't have the longest stems, I fell in love with their autumnal vibes. They were super productive in our garden, blooming from mid-summer up until our first frost. We also grew rudbeckia triloba to use as more of a filler flower, and I was a little disappointed by how long it took to bloom-- we didn't get flowers from it until the last couple of weeks of our growing season. This may have been a user error though so I'm going to give triloba another shot this year, but start the seeds much earlier. And of course Sahara will be making a comeback, along with a couple of new varieties.
Nicotiana. Our nicotiana plants last year were insane in the most gorgeous way possible. I really wish there was a way to capture the beauty of a nicotiana patch in the evening during midsummer because the scent and beauty is truly magical. I'm almost embarrassed to share this picture of our nicotiana patch because all flower farmers know that if you're doing a good job of harvesting then your flower field will never actually have that many flowers. But the fact that I was literally hacking off more stems from these plants than I could possibly use, and they still had this many blooms just goes to show you how truly fantastic they were. I love the bit of whimsy they added to mixed bouquets, and I also think that a bunch of nicotiana grandiflora (the classic white nicotiana) looks gorgeous on it's own.
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