With a bit of patience and planning starting a perennial garden from seed can be extremely rewarding. In just a few years your garden could be the envy of your entire neighborhood as it displays magnificent perennials. Buying a packet of seed for a few dollars rather than spending hundreds for full-grown plants could certainly be your incentive.

If seeding space indoors is at a premium, try direct seeding hardy perennials outdoors this fall. Give your garden a head start, then during the cool, sloppy spring season your fall-sown perennials will be sprouting - usually before you even start thinking about direct-sowing other perennials.

Here are some tips on how to start sowing;

  • Have a good idea where you're going to put your plants because it's really important to take into consideration light and soil requirements.
  • Remember to sow seeds late enough so they will not germinate until the spring.
  • Sow them thickly as germination tends to be lower than other methods.
  • Label and mark the area as not to cultivate them in the spring by mistake.

Hint:  Many gardeners use a corner of their vegetable garden and then transplant seedlings into the garden bed once they have produced two or three sets of leaves - usually before having to set out vegetable bedding plants.

A short list of “tried and true” varieties that fellow gardeners have had excellent success with are found below.
SCABIOSA

AUBRIETIA

 CAMPANULA

MONARDA