My Favourite Annuals

I have been doing some seed shopping again. These really aren't planned purchases; I just buy seeds whenever I happen to find them. Well, not just any seeds of course, but interesting species or cultivars. I have been buying both perennials and annuals. I like sowing seeds and I'm quite happy about the fact that by doing so I save money if compared to buying plants.

I really appreciate annual plants because they nicely fill any empty spot in the border. My flower benches still have those empty plotches because my garden is newly founded and all my perennials, shrubs and trees are really small. I would say that annuals are exactly what I need, although I'm not sure to what extend, because I have dozens of perennial seedlings from last summer as well.

I would like to have all those pretty annuals on my yard, but as I'm not too keen to have endless rows of seedpots on my windowsill, I have given up on quite many species. Now I only buy those seeds that can be sown outdoors directly. I know this is no news any more, as I have been talking about it at least a couple of times already.

But what do I buy then? Here are some of my latst buys.

Lord Nelson seeds are sold in K-rauta, Hortus seeds in City Market and Weibulls seeds in Prisma.

My favourite annuals are poppies, of course. But as you can see, I like many others as well. I have been buying California poppies (Eschscholzia californica), different kinds of Clarkias, annual larkspur (Consolida) - I love the perennial one too! - Linanthus, Zinnia, sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) and Calendulas. I didn't buy any marigolds (Tagetes) this year, but I really liked this 'Vanilla' marigold ( below) last summer.

This Tropaeolum 'Salmon Alaska' was another favourite of mine! Beautifully spotted leaves and blooms with shades oh apricot.

Here's a Papaver somniferum 'Lilac Pompom' in front of some Cosmos that never bloomed....

And this corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) must be a 'Shirley Double'. There's a blend of beautiful pink and strawberry red shades in this seed mix, and I just had to go to have a look at the blooms every single day, because they were so fantastic.

Bachelor's buttons (Centaurea) were a nice fill in the border as well. Here I have red and pink flowers, other colours were sown elsewhere.

There are many beautiful varieties of California poppies. This pink one probably came in a seed pack of 'Thai Silk'.

These feathery black poppies were a surprise. I thought I was sowing 'Drama Queen' seeds, but only one of the flowers actually looked like that variety looks in the pictures I've seen. If anyone knows what these are called, I'd like to know! Then I could buy them again. Last autumn was so rainy, that all the seedpods were destroyed before they were good to harvest. These are not as stunning as some other dark varieties, but they certainly looked "different"! (And they were at the right spot!) 

It looks more purple in bright morning sun, but really black for the rest of the day.

Calendulas weren't ready to be harvested either before the frosts came. I don't mind though, because they didn't look like anything they were supposed to. I mean, I love yellow (I do!) but these were supposed to be pinkish...

Those tiny little Linanthus flowers are really cute and the plants form a dense, feathery looking, healthy green carpet. It looks really nice in places were you need a low ground cover between bigger plants! I'm not sure if you are able to see them behind this bold cone flower (Echinacea). Their flowers only seem to be open when it's sunny.