I'm sick of the rampant reseeding in my yard. Does anyone have suggestions for nice sterile flowers? If I could wintersow it, that would be a bonus. I know that at least some sterile plants can be started from seeds... buy I'm willing to spend $ to buy a good candidate, too.

I have bought 2 Geranium Rozanne, and one Nepeta Walker's Low recently, both of which are supposed to be sterile. And I wintersowed Verbascum Southern Charm, another sterile beauty.

Anyone have suggestions for other sterile flowers?

Karen

I'm more an edibles person but African blue basil has flowers that our bees love and I can't seem to get any seeds at all from the plants I buy --I haven't been able to get seeds from pineapple sage tho I've heard they produce them they also produce really pretty red flowers that taste so yummy

I didn't know pineapple sage was sterile. It wouldn't be perennial this far north, so I might be reluctant to spend much on it though. And I do grow lots of annual red salvia


That African blue basil is really pretty. I don't know that I've ever seen it for sale around here.

Karen

Oops, wrong picture above. Here's that red salvia (that's what happens when I get distracted by football!)



Karen

Wow that is alot!

Like I said my reason for saying the sage is that I haven't found seeds in mine (but I actually like to nibble on the flowers) --both are avalable at my local greenhouse

There annuals up here too (zone 5) so nothing suprising there --it's not sterile but columbine may do? Just deadhead it? (well it's not seriously invaded has barely spread in our yard)

I am at a loss.. no help to you my friend

Biyuwolf, I had a lot of beautiful columbines. But the foliage was so ugly, between the leafminers and then several years of sawfly larvae... I yanked a lot of my columbine. I still do have some though.

Karen

Maybe deadhead 1/4 to 1/2 of each bed with a pitchfork or lawn mower each year, before the main bloom drops seeds, to keep them under control?

Deadhead with a lawnmower??? Sheesh, how pretty is that after?

Karen

True. If the foliage is pretty, cutting it down is ugly.

Only our 2nd year with columbine and not had bug issues --actually we seem to have few bug issues it seems

Hmm could a biennial work? Grow one year cut before seeds the 2nd year?

Only they drop their seeds the second year. Been there, done that.

Karen

Was a thought

Don't count on walkers low not seeding ... I regularly pull seedlings.

Well, it's supposed to be sterile, so at least hopefully it won't volunteer with the vengeance some others do in my yard.
Verbena bonariensis volunteers

Repeat offender, still popping up 4 years later

The next year, Digitalis and verbena bonariensis


Snapdragon


The bright green blanket over this bed in January is all larkspur volunteers


4 o'clocks


These petunias (Laura Bush), all volunteers


I can't even begin to tell you the problems I've had with volunteers. The soil seems so fertile, and every seed that hits the ground seems to germinate. I've had to banish so many plants from my yard. A few volunteers are nice. Hundreds, thousands which pop up for years are not nice. That's why I'm on a quest to find plants that are either sterile or which will volunteers politely, not like thugs.

Karen

I pot up all my unwanted volunteers and sell them at the garden fair the little town nearby has every spring.

I would love that petunia bed.. I never get that kind of luck.. only with the straw flowers that reseeded for 4 years straight.. until this year.. I was sad they didn't self seed like crazy this year.. think there were 4 total.. I grow 4 o'clocks every year and never had 1 reseed .. looks like you need some of my slopes Karen

Allison, have you ever tried Laura Bush Petunia? I guarantee you, they WILL reseed like crazy. I didn't save any seeds, but they're cheap from Wildseed Farms.
http://shop.wildseedfarms.com/...

Karen

nope.. and thanks.. will check them out

That looks like a no work garden to me lol

--and over here we have clay soil there's a few maple trees that were fighting them coming up and few outher issues in the containers as long as I pack them well there's no digger issues no weed issues and as long as the borage stays AWAY there aren't bug issues he'll the bees even seem to love it around here too! We do get weeds at the beginning of the season yes but after I pull them out (am in zone 5 have a date to get everyone planted by the first week of June then I can tell the weeds from what I want save what I want toss what I don't) there's few issues we even have a volunteer purple phlox here and we have no clue where its from (just showed up one year) but it's in like a perfect place for it to flourish

I'm a container gardener tho meaning that my perfect dirt gets to my guess is something like zone 2 every winter something columbine can survive (like 5 big plants me harvesting seeds and wind and a total of like 5 volunteers) orange thyme and enjlish thyme both have had to FIGHT to survive over the winter to stay there those are about the only 3 things that have come back --I've had lettuce seeds come up in the cracks in our cement after growing them one year

I guess lol I'd love to have to fight so much to keep a nice garden but ATM I have a near effortless garden after planting it's add occasional fert and water and lol that's literally about it