Flowers You Can Plant in the Fall

Pansies started from seed in the fall

What are Hardy Annuals?

Did you know there are some flower seeds you can plant in the fall to bloom in Spring?

Hardy Annuals are flowers that live just one year (not perennial), but are able to withstand the freezing temps of winter to show up in full force come spring.

Most Annuals thrive in warm temperatures, but not these workhorses. These flowers spend the winter growing their root systems so that they are well established the moment the weather turns warm enough to bloom.

That being said, cold hardy annuals are cold hardy without cold protection down to zone 7. Anything colder than zone 7 and you may need to experiment with cold protection like low tunnels, polytunnels or frost cloth. Experimenting is the best way to find out what will work for you.

If you wait until the weather feels warm enough to sow these early blooming spring flowers, the window for their bloom time could be cut short depending on your weather that year. I have almost given up growing Sweetpea flowers since they abhor warm weather and our spring warms up so quickly. I almost never get a good showing of sweetpea flowers despite starting the seeds in December and planting them out in January.

Snapdragons from seed planted in the fall

Most cold hardy annuals should be started/sown 6-8 weeks before your first frost. (just google your zip code and first frost date). This gives them time, temperature and light to get a decent start on growing and developing a root system before it turns really cold.

List of Cold Hardy Annuals

Alyssum

Ammi

Bachelor Buttons

Bells of Ireland

Black Eyed Susan

Bupleurum

Calendula

Chinese Forget Me Nots

Corn Cockle

Delphinium

Dianthus

Dill

Echinacea

False Queen Anne’s Lace

Feverfew

Foxglove

Larkspur

Monarda

Nigella (Love in a Mist)

Orlaya

Pansies

Pincushion

Poppies

Rudbeckia

Snapdragons

Statice

Stock

Strawflower

Sweetpea

Sweet William

You can direct sow many of these cold hardy annual flower seeds, or if you prefer, you can start them indoors, harden them off and plant them out.

I like to start my snapdragons, foxglove, sweetpeas and pansies inside and plant out. Calendula and poppies are my favorite to direct sow.

Calendula started in the fall

If you want to learn more about cold hardy annuals, the book, "Cool Flowers" by Lisa Mason Ziegler is a good reference source for growing. I was able to find a copy at my local library. A great source for seeds is Lisa's Gardeners Workshop Farm website. She lists out cool flower seeds in a separate section and even separates them by which ones do better direct sown or started indoors.

If starting seeds in the fall sounds terrible after the exhaustiion of a summer garden, you can also start seeds for these cold hardy annuals in late winter and early spring to transplant out a month before your last frost date.