Top-10 Flowers for Direct Seeding
Easy-to-grow cut flowers to start from seeds sown directly into your garden soil
Looking for a fast answer to “ Which flowers can I sow straight into the row or bed? ”
Perhaps you lack the space, equipment or time to start flowers indoors. Perhaps you simply want flowers that grow well from direct sowing, or you want to sow lots of them quickly and often. Whatever the reason, here are our ten favorites for direct seeding: 5 to sow while it's cool, and 5 for warmer weather. (And 1 that works in either.)
All of them are easy, but if you want more than a list (a lot more), see the information after the charts. We have growing resources for every crop we sell.
Top-5 Picks for Warm-Soil Sowing
Five easy warm-season annuals you can sow again every few weeks for flowers to cut all season.
Top-5 Picks for Cool-Soil Sowing
Five easy cool-season annuals that need cool soil to germinate; for best results sow them only in early spring, or in fall where they can overwinter.
+ 1: Calendula
Calendula deserves a mention too, since it can be sown any time and doesn't need particularly cool or warm soil to sprout. It comes up faster in warm soil but grows happily in cool weather. It's easy, adaptable and one of the quickest flowers here, ready to cut about 50–55 days after sowing.
Learn More
Flower Crop Libraries
Each crop's library page has its growing information: germination temperatures, sowing rates and depths, harvest advice and other basics, the same details you'd find in a catalog or on the back of a seed packet. Every library page also has more detailed resources such as charts, production tech sheets, articles and other learning materials.
Direct-Seeding Library
New to direct seeding or want to learn more? Our charts and guides on the method are in the direct seeding library.
About Precision-Seeding Flowers
Some flowers can be sown faster and more evenly with a precision seeder than by hand. Which ones? We wanted to know too, so the Hensley's team ran seeder trials and repeats them from time to time to check that the results hold up.
Seed size, shape and surface texture largely decide how well a seed runs through a seeder, and these vary a lot from crop to crop, variety to variety and sometimes even lot to lot.
Every seeder design has strengths and limits, and for direct-sowing flowers our favorite is the Jang JP seeder. (Our seeder buying guide explains what to look for.)
Jang JP rollers are drilled in different patterns to suit different seed sizes and shapes, and our trial tested which flower varieties work with which roller combinations. It showed that most of the flowers on this list can be sown with a Jang JP seeder: Ammi, bells of Ireland, bupleurum, Centaurea, Daucus, larkspur, Nigella, and sunflowers.
We turned the results into reference charts to use when planning your season. (They include many more flowers plus farm seed, herbs and vegetables.) Use them as a starting point to see which combinations run smoothly and which don't, and when you test them yourself, note the small seeder adjustments we suggest.
- CUT FLOWER cross-reference chart • Jang JP roller trial results • Spreadsheet (XLSX)
- SUNFLOWER cross-reference chart • Jang JP roller trial results • Spreadsheet (XLSX)
Seeder or not, allow time to learn and run a few small tests before scaling up. For a methodical approach, see our Jang roller selection guide for tips on testing different seeds in different rollers. The idea is to find what works and build on it, so keep notes.
We hope you have great success sowing these flowers directly. If you need more information, just ask, and give it a try!
