Annual blue salvia, alyssum, snap dragons and pansies are the most reliable for planting in my garden. This year I plan on putting some Dusty Miller around the base of the birdhouse pole, then surround it with white alyssum.

I guess our fall plantings down here would be the same as your spring. Pansies, violas, snapdragons, and dianthus all bloom fall through late spring. I planted a couple larkspur in the fall and sowed a bunch of seed from last year's flowers. The transplants are putting out flower stalks, but the seedlings are still pretty small. We've had so much cold weather this winter I'm guessing it stunted their growth. Hoping they put on a flush of growth when the weather finally warms.

I'm not used to buying bedding plants but I do vote for pansies. In anycase, I have a very tight garden bed and once the perennials are up, there's no room for the bedding plants. instead I sprinkle wildflower seeds and let them find room in the garden.

Our spring season is so short and sometimes too warm for many bedding plants. I plant some of the same things she does and intermix them with wonderful, bright and interestingly leafed veggies. It's such a pretty mix. I have more luck with spring flowers from seed, and then I feel like it's more economical too. They sell more spring flowers for containers here, but not so much at the big box stores anymore, I need to go to specialty nurseries to get what I need, even then, I've noticed a great change in the breadth of variety. Slim pickins! I can't wait to get a green house!!