Summer Garden Re-Runs

Moss rose seedlings

When I know certain annuals are likely to re-seed themselves, I try to watch when weeding that area the following spring, so that I don't pull up all the seedlings by mistake.

For example, I was working in the flower bed out front by the street last evening.  Moss rose, or portulaca, was growing there last year, and I know it reseeds.  I kept a careful eye out as I pulled out grass and weeds, and sure enough, there were the tiny little seedlings of the moss rose, just starting to grow.


I love to have lots of moss rose every year, so I appreciate any free plants that volunteer to liven up even the hottest and driest areas of my garden.  Then I buy enough more to fill in any places needed.  

It helps to not only have an idea of where in your garden such volunteer annuals are most likely to be, but also what their leaves look like, and what their seedlings look like, which are not always the same thing. 

Sunflower seedling

Last year I had a row of sunflowers across part of the back fence.  This was right behind the raised beds of my vegetable garden.  Sure enough, this spring the beds that had been closest to that row were full of volunteer seedlings.  I am transplanting enough of them to create a row of sunflowers where I want them, and discarding the rest.

Such volunteer plants will not retain all of the characteristics of their hybrid parent plants, but will tend to revert to their basic ancestral characteristics. (Instead of sunflowers in deep rose and cream colors, they may all be yellow.) But in most cases, that's still flowers I can enjoy, especially at the price!

Four o'clocks getting started

Four o'clocks are another annual that reseed readily.  My neighbor first planted some four o'clocks about five years ago, along the fence bordering on my yard.  Since then, I have had volunteer four o'clocks return every year along that fence.  They may not sprout in all the places I want, but I move them while they are tiny, to fill in that border.

Another annual that has done well about reseeding itself in my garden is old-fashioned, non-hybrid petunias.  Hybrid petunias don't reseed, but if you can find the old-fashioned ones, they will.  They won't have all of the colors and styles of modern petunias, but they are quite lovely. I have also enjoyed volunteers from bachelor buttons, ageratum, cleome, hollyhocks, and zinnias.

When I have self-sowing flowers that I want to return, I don't deadhead all of them at the end of the growing season, leaving some seedheads to mature and scatter their seeds. It may also be helpful to collect some seeds from each type of flower when they are quite dry, and keep them in labeled envelopes.  The next spring you can start these indoors or using winter sowing, so that you can see what the seedlings will look like.

A self-perpetuating garden is great for a thrifty, lower-maintenance approach to gardening. These are only a few of the annuals that will offer a new generation of flowers for your garden.