Great question, I hope you get lots of good ideas...

The following I've had luck with (P for perennial):
-- Rocky Mountain beeplant
-- CA poppies
-- Blue flax (P)
-- Mexican hat (P)
-- Cosmos
-- Goldeneye

I'm sure there are many many others, I've just not tried them yet.

Columbines

Shasta daisy

Carla

Oh I just thought of another one: celosia flower

Wildflower seeds planted in the fall worked for me, we'll see what they look like next year, hopefully they'll reseed well.

Poppies should be planted in Fall, right?

Several salvias have come up from seed.

For summer color, I've had very good luck broadcasting seeds of the following: celosia spicata, gomphrenas, torenias, asclepsias tuberosa(milkweed), verbena bonareinsis, cleome,salvia coccinea, and ornamenal peppers. I harvest and broadcast the seeds as soon as they are ripe, rather than broadcasting at particular times of year. If your beds are heavily mulched, the seeds have a very low germination rate (generally speaking).
Molly

I'm going to try obedient plant. The DMN had an article on flowers that will fill areas and they sound good. They also mention black eyed susan, purple coneflower and perilla. The cone flowers should be scattered in the winter since they need scarification.

I scattered little bluestem, sideoats grass, zinnia pompon, blue catmint and cleome seeds a couple of weeks ago. There are quire a few things coming up in that bed but they aren't big enough for me to tell just which ones yet-:)

Molly, your milkweed seeds you just toss out there? That's great if it works, I have some.

Those firespike cuttings you sent me have turned into really nice healthy plants for several people up here. They even came back last year after a really cold wet winter. I love them.

I have some old cleome seeds but I didn't find out until today they need cold stratification. So I'll set them inside wet paper towels in the fridge for a while before I sow them.

Melvalena, yes, the milkweed has worked well for me. I found out long ago, that if I imitate mother nature and broadcast the seeds when they are viable, they come up at their proper time....if they need cold strat they will germinate after the required stratification (as with cleomes) and if they don't they will germinate quickly, as is the case with zinnias, etc.
Glad you are enjoying the firespike. It's one of my favorite shade plants.

You know me, I just throw any and all seeds out or in pots. Dang palm trees though take over. The only time I start them is for trades. :)
Is it happy hour yet?
Tally HO!

Texas rock rose (Pavonia) seeds can just be scattered and they thrive with hardly any care at all. They seeded themselves in an area next to the street that had been graveled over poor soil. They've persisted there for years so I just let 'um.

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas rock rose ...

Yes, ogrose.. sow those poppy seeds in the fall. (along with the larkspur, and cleome and bluebonnets)

hmmm. Looks like we need 2 "scatter" lists: fall and spring

and a reminder to do them. LOL

When you reach a certain age: its Happy Hour when ever you want it to be!

I just woke up and I'm almost ready now. :)

Gee, poor Mel....I'd NEVER have another happy hour if I had to do that!

LOL!!! Give me a day and a half uninterrupted and I'd have it done.. including the windows! But I never have that much uninterrupted time!

Carrie knows I have family coming for Easter Dinner and had to put everything else on hold until I get the house ready and food prepared... plus get the yard ready for little ones to hunt Easter Eggs...oh my poor seedlings!
But what's a Grandma to do? :)

I shared with her that I've decided since its only family I no longer need to kill myself cleaning 'every nook and cranny'! Its hard for me to cut back on the cleaning list and not see all those cobwebs, dust bunnies and finger prints everywhere.

I think Happy Hour would help me to overlook those things, don't you guys? :)

It will certainly help me during the egg hunts! (which reminds me --need oj for mimosas!)

I'll scatter seeds AFTER Easter. They'll have a better chance of surviving.

I'm thinking of starting a new trend:

Gardening with Mimosas!!

Or Mimosa Mornings?

And I am trying to convince her that gardeners don't have houses with every "nook and cranny" cleaned.......LOL>
Anyone else agree with me???? Or am I the only one with a "not so clean" house????

We are not doing the wholesale house cleaning this year. I usually use family gatherings as an excuse to get Bob to help me polish furniture, wash windows and mop the floors, but he has a lot of preparation to do for the music program at church this year and anyway the house gets so crowded with people that you can hardly see the floor so who cares?

Carrie, I'm definitely with you on the house cleaning bit!

To stay 'on topic' :-) I just put pictures on the gallery including some of the Rock rose mentioned above.

Well, I really should do something towards getting reading for Sunday ... sigh.

Scatter Forget-Me-Nots anywhere, even in grassy areas.
They'll grow and look beautiful and reseed themselves every year unless you mow before they set seed.

I had them come up in my front yard several years ago even though I didn't cast the seed. It was a mystery until my neighbor up the hill came over and told me that the FMNs that she planted in her front bed had washed out during a rainstorm down the hill, across the street, through the fence and landed inside my yard. So I thanked her and told her that she is welcome to come over and look at them. They are really pretty and a true blue color so they stand out nicely against the grass.

Cheryl

Carrie, you're not the only one! I found a sign at Hobby Lobby a couple years ago:

Life is full of choices. 1. Clean house. 2. Plant flowers. See ya in the garden!

I had to get it as it was SO true!

Ann, if you want perilla and are in the DFW area, let me know. I have a variety I grew up knowing as "Aunt Tootsie's Purples" that's sprouting up all over. Don't worry, if they sprout in the grass they don't survive a couple of mowings and if they sprout elsewhere, they're easy to pull.

Cheryl, I winter sowed lots of forget me nots and got them planted out already. I do hope they perform and reseed.

My house is in real need of a deep cleaning! Like all of you, I would rather be in the garden! We are going to have Easter dinner with my In-Laws at their place....they have a housekeeper so we're in great shape!

"Gardening forever!
Housework ... whenever."

Is on a little sign at my front door :-)

I must get one of those, Roselee.........

Did anyone mention Datura aka moonflower...plant, not vine.

Tithonia...aka Mexican Sunflower

Oh....4 O'clocks are great in more shade.

somebody said cleome right?

I have Mexican mint marigold returning from last year's seeds. Same for ornamental peppers.

I have tossed out Candle tree and had it come up...but I scratched the soil first.

That's all I can think of that haven't been mentioned.

c

What are the pros and cons of 4 O'clocks? I've contemplated "planting" them, but never gotten around to it. I've thought about putting them in the yard by the house on the east facing side. No trees for shade, but the area doesn't get a lot of sun. The althea I planted "far enough from the house" is now growing AWAY from the house, so I'm guessing it's not getting enough sun. Ah, the joys of gardening.

FWIW The poppy seeds scattered last spring (when I pulled up the mother plants) grew much taller and heathier than those planted in the Fall.
I have always assumed the plants knew what they were doing :)

Yes Plantmaven,
But how many of the seeds survive the birds and dogs? :)
I'm sure the plants drop way more seeds than are in a package you purchase.
I think that is part of the reason 'they' say to do it in fall in our area, though some do say to do it early fall, as soon as the summer temps drop, so they'll sprout and over winter then in early spring jump up into action.

reading this and wondering WHY seeds don't come up in my alley which is infested with stray bermuda grass. great sun, and i see wildflowers amoungst grasses on the highways, and i can't get rid of this bermuda. i have tried, and it just grows back (and i am NOT going to manicure this alley!).

any ideas?? i threw out a bunch of mexican petunia (the tall one) last year, and nothing!! nada!!

it is coming up in other areas, i don't mow (often) or spray.

would love it to be prettier! as would my neighbors!

BUT, to the OP, melvalena, Mexican Petunia...i got the seeds from a Central Market parking lot plant in late, late summer, and threw them in various places and most are coming up. as i recall, you can't get rid of this plant, it reseeds so readily, so watch what you wish for!!

ilovemyroses,
I got rid of the bermuda in my alley bed at the old house. It took a while though. (details at the link below)

I only had to cut the cannas back after the first freeze or anytime they started to lean out into the alley, and trim up the artemisa in early spring. No need to do much else once I got the grass gone and everything planted. It pretty much took care of itself.

Thanks for the info on the mexican petunia.. I wouldn't mind the little ones.. but don't want the big ones. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: info on killing off grass

This week I've spent going through my seed stash and scattering nearly every seed appropriate for this time of year out in my beds. I lined them up according to height and started at the back of the beds--working forward to the low growing ones.

I sowed a ton of seeds! My stash is nearly cut it in half so far --I'm still working on it.

We'll see what happens. :)

carrie ~
what's a nook? [snicker]

melvalena ~
[sniff, sniff] the alley doesn't look that good any more [sniff, sniff]

Ask Gail............she's the one who cleans them...LOL>

LOL!! You guys are just too funny!

Amy.. sorry to hear that ally bed isn't looking as good anymore. :(

We kinda have a rule not to 'go back' and see what's been done to our old houses. I have broken that rule a few times and its never worth it.