Easy Plants to Grow From Seed

Do you want to start plants from seeds, but lack experience or confidence? Don't worry, a lot of gardeners start out that way. Growing plants from seeds can seem like a daunting task at first, but once you narrow down what kinds of seeds you want to start indoors it will get easy. Here are some recommendations for east plants to grow from seed.

10 Easy Vegetables to Grow from Seed

Peas
Beets
Beans
Chard
Lettuce
Carrots
Squash
Melons
Radishes
Cucumbers 

If you're starting your own garden because you would like to grow some of your own food, give these 10 easy vegetables to grow from seed a try. Not only are these vegetables easy to grow yourself, they are staples in a healthy diet and can save you money on your grocery bill. You can start them indoors, but they are also good candidates for direct sowing/seeding into the ground when the weather warms up in your area. This article on seed starting tips for beginner gardeners should be of help, but you can also look over the seed saving tab for all articles about starting and saving seeds. Got any suggestions for easy vegetables to grow from seeds?

Easiest Seeds to Grow for Kids

Peas
Beans
Melons
Cucumbers
Sunflowers
Nasturtium

Starting seeds with kids can be rewarding and a challenge at the same time. For starters, kids have small hands and tiny fingers. Their dexterity sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. But finding easy plants to grow from seed for kids isn't very difficult. Choose garden seeds that are easy for little fingers to handle. The easiest seeds to grow for kids are large, easy to handle, and germinate quickly. You can plant these easy seeds in cups, soda bottles, milk containers, and yogurt cups in addition to biodegradable seed starting pots. 

Easiest Seeds to Grow Flowers

Zinnias
Pansies
Poppies
Cosmos
Marigolds
Nasturtium
Sunflowers
Bachelor buttons
Aquilegia aka columbines
Nigella aka love-in-a-mist

Every year I come across people online who want to grow their own flowers for a wedding or party and want to know what the easiest seeds to grow flowers are. Well, that answer is very complicated especially since I deal with gardening and not floriculture (flower farming). But I can tell you which are the easiest seeds to grow flowers from my experience as a gardener. Sowing these seeds in your garden or garden bed will almost certainly lead to flowers. If you're looking for easy care flowers from seeds, stick to fast growing annuals like these. 

These are just some of the easiest seeds to grow from seeds. If you come across a seed that isn't very easy for you, try, try, try, again. There are several garden seeds that I do not have much luck germinating. But I don't let a few failures overshadow my successes in the garden, and you shouldn't either. Do you have any recommendations for easy plats to grow from seed? 

Black-Eyed Susan Vines

A couple of years ago I had the chance to interview George Ball Jr., owner of the Burpee Seed Company, and during the interview I mentioned to him that I was a big fan of vines. I recounted how I used to love the vine selections offered by the Martha Stewart seed line, which Burpee packaged, because it had some really nice vines. Mr. Ball mentioned that because of the vertical gardening trend Burpee would start to carry a bigger selection of vines. So far I haven’t seen seed companies step up and push vines for vertical gardeners, but if you’re looking for an easy-to-grow vine for your mailbox, fence, living wall--or maybe a privacy screen--there’s no better vine than Thunbergia alata. The ornamental garden vines in this genus are better known by their common name, Black-eyed Susan vine.

 Go beyond morning glories and runner beans and grow these six beautiful Black-eyed Susan vine varieties.

Thunbergia alata 'Susie White Black Eye'

Coleus "Under the Sea" Hort Couture Collection

I’m a big, big fan of coleus. As far as I’m concerned there is no wrong coleus to grow in the garden. Granted, there are some coleus color combinations I’m not too fond of, but to each their own. I always thought the only way coleus plants could be improved is if they were bread to produce large flowers. Then I was introduced to the “Under the Sea” collection of coleus plants at a garden show a couple of years ago and fell in love with them. This year Hort Couture sent me a box of sample plants to trial in my garden. Below are pictures of the plants from the “Under the Sea” collection that performed well in my garden, and that I’m comfortable recommending to gardeners looking for unusual garden plants.

'Bone Fish'

Cool Wave Pansy 'Violet Wing'

If you want to insult a man, call him a pansy. It's one of those words that can be used in mixed company and stings without the need to resort to profanity. But the only man that will take umbrage with being called a pansy is a man who hasn't grown one in a garden before. A man that gardens knows pansies are tough. Pansies are among the few annuals you can plant in your garden in the spring that will take the cold and rain and keep coming back. This year I grew 'Violet Wing' pansies that came in the plant sample box that Ball Horticulture sent out to garden communicators to trial in our gardens.

Saving Gaillardia Flower Seeds

The annual plant, Gaillardia pulchella--sometimes called Indian blanket, blanket flower, Indian blanket flower or firewheel-- is an herbaceous annual native to the central U.S. It's an extremely easy-to-grow plant in the garden, and just as easy is saving Gaillardia seeds.

How to Save Cockscomb Seeds

If you’re looking for easy-to-grow annuals for your garden, you can’t do better than Celosia cristata. Commonly known as cockscomb or woolflowers the flowers of this tough annual plant resemble the comb of a rooster, hence the name. Saving cockscomb seeds is easy, and I recently learned a new trick for collecting these seeds.

Saving Nicotiana Seeds

I can’t say enough positive things about growing Nicotiana plants in the garden. They’re tough plants than can take some heat and drought, several species and hybrid cultivars have some beautiful flowers, and the sweet-scented blooms attract moths and other pollinators. Saving and collecting Nicotiana seeds is really easy.

'Black Boy' Bachelor's Button Flower

About 6-7 years ago, during my Gothic gardening phase, I received a packet of seeds labeled ‘Black Boy’ Bachelor’s Button. I put the seeds away in my seed pack keeper bin with the intention to sowing it one day. I love black flowers, but there was something about this flower that nagged me without me truly understanding.

Calendula 'Zeolights'

I've been content with growing Calendula officinalis in my garden for years. Pot marigold, as it is most commonly known, is a great garden annual that can be grown in a container garden, or in the ground in poor soil. A couple of years ago at a seed trade a friend talked me into picking up some Calendula ‘Zeolights’ seeds. I reluctantly took the seeds and put them away. This spring I decided to give them a try and am now wondering why I didn’t grow ‘Zeolights’ in my garden before. 

How to Collect & Save Bachelor's Button Seeds

Since my interest in gardening lead to me collecting and saving seeds that I can distribute through my seed library I've been focusing more and more on old fashioned flowers. The "old lady" garden flowers I would have turned my nose up at a few years ago are now my obsession. Seeds for these flowers are easy to buy, trade, and most importantly: they're easy to save and share with new gardeners. One such flower is Bachelor's Button. Collecting and saving Bachelor's Button seeds is really easy.

Petunia 'Black Cherry'

Petunia Debonair 'Black Cherry' is a new introduction from the Ball Horticultural. I believe this black petunia will be widely available next year. I received a few plugs of the 'Black Cherry' petunia this spring from Ball to trial in my garden. As a lover of black plants and flowers I was really excited about trialing another dark blooming plant.

'Mahogany Splendor' Hibiscus

I haven't grown a tender or tropical hibiscus in my garden since the year I forgot to bring one in before the first frost and it died. The joy of growing a potted hibiscus all summer long doesn't make up for the stress at the end of the season caused by deciding between attempting to overwinter it inside or composting it. I was pretty sure I was done with non-hardy hibiscuses in my garden until last year when I toured the gardens at Ball Horticulture. I saw what I thought was an amazing Japanese maple from a distance. When I ran up to it I discovered it was a 'Mahogany Splendor' Hibiscus.

Living Wall Planted with Nasturtiums

I love growing nasturtiums, but I had never thought of them as plants that could be used in a living wall. Living walls and vertical gardens are usually planted with low growing plants-primarily succulents-that, to me, don't make me want to go out and install a living wall. Although, this living wall planted with nasturtiums is giving me ideas.

'Coconut Ice' Sunflower

Like with most other plants I like my sunflowers to be on the usual side. The ones I've previously grown have been either sunflowers with dark petals like 'Cinnamon Sun' or they're giant sunflowers like 'Titan' and 'Mammoth.' This year I was offered 'Coconut Ice' seeds by Burpee and really liked the pictures I saw of this sunflower on the Internet, even if it wasn't so weird, so I decided to give it a try. The petals start off a creamy yellow fading to a nice white with a black center. In the promotional picture for this annual the effect of the dark center and white petals is quite striking.

Salvia 'Black and Blue'

As a gardener who is always seeking out dark flowers and plants I can’t believe that salvia ‘Black and Blue’ has escaped my notice all these years. The salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ cultivar is remarkable for the bright blue flowers, dark stems and almost black calyx. Unfortunately, ‘Black and Blue’ is hardy USDA Zones 8-11, and here in Chicago it would be grown as an annual. I encountered it by accident after brushing against the leaves of the plant growing in a public planter and released the most wonderful scent and discovered why one of the common names is ‘Anise Sage.’

Petunia 'Black Cat' The World's First Black Petunia

I have loved black plants since I discovered gardening. More time has been spent day dreaming of being a Victorian or Edwardian gardener than I care to admit. If last year you had given me access to a TARDIS and allowed me to go back in time and experience gardening then- I would have jumped at the chance. It's a good thing that nobody showed up with a TARDIS last year because I would've missed out on the opportunity to grow petunia 'Black Cat,' billed as "the world's very first black petunia" by W. Atlee Burpee & Co.

Transplanting Poppy Seedlings

Poppies are probably my favorite annual to grow in my garden because they're dependable flowers, attract bees, and grow in poor soil. I've blogged about how I sow poppy seeds in the garden, but they're prolific self-seeders too. Poppy seeds remain for years in the ground and will sprout when the soil is turned over and they're exposed to sunlight. While I save poppy seeds from my garden, I let most fall to the ground and self-sow. The one downside of self-seeding poppies is that they'll germinate in clumps which grow weaker poppies, but I've found transplanting poppy seedlings into other areas of the garden to be pretty easy after some observation and experimentation.

How to Collect Hyacinth Bean Vine Seeds

If you’re looking for a quick-growing annual vine that will cover a fence or garden trellis you would be hard-pressed to find a better one than the hyacinth bean vine. Purple hyacinth bean vine leaves are attractive and heart-shaped, pink-purple blooms and produce leathery purple seed pods that provide interest long after the blooms have faded.  A member of the Fabaceae family this ornamental vine is a relative of beans and peas and makes an attractive addition to vegetable and ornamental gardens. Easy to start from seed, hyacinth bean vine seeds are easy to collect at the end of the growing season.

How to Save Seeds

A recent visitor to this garden blog asked me what the benefit of saving seeds from the garden for next year. The answer can be a rather long one involving issues like income, consumerism, and even politics when we get into the area of genetically modified organisms and saving heirloom seeds. The biggest benefit for me of saving seeds for next year is that I create a backup of my garden should plants die or get stolen. While saving seeds from vegetables, flowers and fruits you're creating your own personal seed bank. Below are some seed saving tips and techniques I rely on to save seeds from plants in my garden. Hopefully they'll be of use to new gardeners who come across this.

How To Collect Basil Seeds

Of all the edible plants people can grow in their gardens, or in containers, basil has to be the easiest of them all. No herb garden is complete without at least one basil plant growing. My only problem with growing basil is the price of basil seedlings and seeds of the nicer basil cultivars available. Growing basil from seeds is very easy and the most affordable way to grow many basil plants. Once you've grown a basil plant saving seeds from your basil plant is very easy, you just need to learn where to look on the plant so you know how to collect basil seeds.