TIME TO SOW HARDY ANNUALS
For spectacular border plants that virtually look after themselves, hardy annuals take some beating – and now is a great time to sow them, says Val Bourne
Val Bourne has nine varieties for autumn sowing
Whether it’s butterflies, bees or hoverflies, when it comes to attracting pollinators, there is nothing quite like a hardy annual. And there’s a very good reason for that: these one-year wonders have to be pollinated so they can set seed and produce the next generation of plants.
hardy annuals are great for edging borders. Alternatively, they can be allowed to drift through an area and fill in the gaps – as they do among the roses and phlox in my cutting garden – or planted close to vegetable beds. I simply couldn’t do without them. Some of mine are left to self seed; others – the overenthusiastic ones – are carefully culled, with the results then sown in trays and later bedded out.
the natural cycle of the hardy annual is most often to flower around midsummer, although gardeners like me often deadhead their annuals to keep them going for months. Just don’t be tempted to be too tidy: always leave a few plants to set seeds naturally.
In late summer and autumn those ripe seeds drop to the ground and germinate – the soil is enticingly warm in September. So if you’ve already got a patch of pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis), love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) or blue cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) you could allow them to self sow. Like the old biblical parable, some will fall on stony ground and others will be eaten by birds or slugs so your success rate is in the lap of the Gods (and, of course, the notoriously fickle British weather).
Sow in autumn
A more foolproof approach, especially if you are buying costly packets of seed, is to
"Sow now for larger plants and more flowers"
sow hardy annuals in trays of seed sowing compost. And now is the best time to do it because autumn germination produces larger, more-floriferous hardy annuals with better root systems.
Plant in the coming weeks and the lower temperatures and shortening days will slow down top growth but aid root development. This is particularly noticeable with umbellifers, which tend to be tap-rooted. There are three annual members of the cow parsley family that are better sown now. Orlaya grandiflora, also known as the white lace flower, makes a far larger plant sown now, while Ammi majus, a billowing annual with white domes of tiny flowers, and the later-flowering A. visnaga , a straightstemmed umbel with green-white flowers, will also double their size with autumn sowing. So don’t sit back and wait – it really does pay to get ahead of the game and make a start now. ■