This is my comment in response to Dee Nash’s post Which flowers are easy to grow from seed? Here are several I like it ended up being long so I decided to make a post of my own, I want to go find pictures, but I’m sick, so pictures might come later..
My favorite easy-to-grow flowers are Cosmos and Bachelor Buttons. Cosmos grow all over my mom’s garden – I had some of my senior pictures taken in the garden with the cosmos. She has the ones that are primarily pink but occasionally throw purple or white (incomplete dominance at work). We didn’t get Cosmos until we moved, so I was at least 9 before I learned about them.
Bachelor Buttons and I go much further back. My grandma’s garden has Bachelor Buttons all over – in all the colors. I didn’t even realize some of the colors weren’t as common as others as far as selling the seed – but I knew that when I was younger, I loved running around picking the flowers and trying to get one of each color. I would squeal with excitement when I found a color I didn’t have yet. She has both the white outside with colored inside and colored outside with different colored inside, and same-colored inside and outside – she has variations I’ve never even seen for sale!
Sunflowers are beautiful, but they can be pests too. For several years, I fed my rabbits black oil sunflower seeds as a supplement to help them have better condition. Inevitably, some of the seeds would find their way into the manure that we put in the garden. Mom’s garden is filled with sunflowers and they can be annoying because they shadow the things you want to grow and if you let them grow, their big stems and heavy roots make it hard to work the soil for the next year. And of course, they seed themselves down for the next year when the birds snack on them. But I must admit, I love the Goldfinches who come to snack on their seeds!
One other flower I like to grow that is quite easy to grow around here from seed are Marigolds. You can save seed from one year to the next and to grow, I just mess the soil a little, scatter the seeds, water, and mess the soil again. They are beautiful (of course, orange is my favorite color), don’t require lots of water, and they can repel bad bugs and deer. I believe they are edible and can be used in essential oils, but I’ve never tried that.