10 award-winning annuals to sow direct

Chosen for their beauty, reliability and outstanding performance, these plants have proved themselves in rigorous RHS Plant Trials, having received the RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit, which highlight the best choices for gardens of every size and style.

Perfect around roses

Sprays of light blue, white or pink flowers during the summer

This elegant, self supporting relative of the forget-me-not carries open sprays of sky blue flowers, with a darker spot at the base of each petal, on slender upright stems. Cynoglossum amabilemakes a pretty cut flower for cottage-style bouquets and can either be sown in spring or treated as a biennial

Biennials are plants that complete their life cycle over the course of two years. In the first year, biennials typically produce leaves and roots but no flowers. In the second year, they flower and produce seeds before dying. Some common biennials include foxgloves Digitalis, honesty Lunaria annua and viper's bugloss Echium vulgare.

and sown in summer. It’s especially pretty when it self sows around roses. 45cm (18in). Hardiness rating: H5.

Semi-double flowers

Pink petals with a gradient into the cream centre

‘Rose Chiffon’ is an annual with blue-green foliage and semi-double flowers to 6cm across, the fluted petals heavily flushed rose-pink on a cream ground, red on the reverse. Grows to 25cm tall. Hardiness rating: H3.

Sweet pea heaven

Highly scented as per its name

This pretty picoteed sweet pea is one of the most fragrant of all sweet peas and combines its powerful fragrance with creamy flowers that are beautifully flushed with purple towards the edges. Lathyrus odoratus ‘High Scent’ carries four flowers per stem when grown informally, and starts to flower earlier than many sweet peas. Sow in the autumn for the best plants, or in spring. 1.8m (6ft). Hardiness rating: H2.

The perfect pink

Rounded leaves and open funnel-shaped light pink flowers

The beautifully veined flowers of the dramatic Lavateratrimestris ‘Silver Cup’ are carried on tall, bushy plants which spread well and develop an almost shrub-like presence. Each trumpet-shaped flower is boldly veined in vivid pink, with a neat dark eye, and shades to pink towards the edges. The petals have a reflective sheen that gleams in the sun. 70cm (2ft). Hardiness rating: H3.

A poached egg-like flower

Masses of white-tipped yellow flowers during the summer and autumn

Of all the direct sow annuals

Annuals are plants that complete their life cycle in one growing season. They are generally easy to grow from seed or can be bought as young plants from garden centres. Annuals are ideal for growing in summer containers and filling gaps in borders. Some examples of annuals include sunflowers, cosmos, sweet peas and zinnia.

featured here, Limnanthesdouglasiiis the one that tolerates damp soil best. Once you have it, it will often self sow in autumn, develop dense foliage over the winter, even on clay, and then be covered in the bright, yellow and white, poached egg flowers for months. It will even flower in mild winters, especially in sheltered sites. 15cm (6in). Hardiness rating: H5.

Bell-shaped flowers

Bell-shaped flowers open during summer evenings

Normally classed as a half-hardy annual, and sown in a propagator

A propagator is a portable, lightweight structure usually plastic, with a vented or unvented lid to provide a humid, slightly warmer atmosphere. It is useful to help seeds germinate and root cuttings. It may have adjustable, thermostatic temperature control.

or on the windowsill, I’ve sown seed outside in May and by August Nicotiana langsdorffiiwas flowering prolifically. The bright green bells, held on wiry stems and sparked inside by blue anthers, sway prettily in the breeze and are pretty cut flowers. In well-drained soil, plants sometimes overwinter as perennials. 1.2m. (4ft). Hardiness rating: H2.

Sky blue

Blue flowers grow above feathery foliage

This classic love-in-a-mist with its distinctive sky blue flowers, Nigella damascena ‘Miss Jekyll’grows well from a spring sowing and even better when sown in the autumn; its sharply divided leaves are an appealing winter feature and then it flowers more prolifically and earlier than spring sown plants. A lovely cut flower, it self sows well. 45cm (18in). Hardiness rating: H3.

Silver foliage

Delicate white flowers bloom

Like Cynoglossum, Omphalodes linifoliais an annual which is both lovely in itself and also a great mixer with perennials and shrubs – in the garden, and in the vase where it lasts especially well. The silvery foliage is topped with slender stems carrying small pure white flowers which have the bonus of being sweetly scented. Better in damper soils than most of those featured here. 40cm (16in).

A dramatic poppy

Featuring both a bold centre and bold petals

One of the most dramatic of all poppies, ‘Ladybird’ has been selected for its especially vivid red colouring and the intensity of the large, black, rather square blotch at the base of petal. For sowing in autumn or spring, ‘Ladybird’ tends to self sow less than other poppies so there’s no danger of that red colouring taking over the garden – but it does need careful placing. 40cm (16in). Hardiness rating: H5.

Child-friendly

Flowers in shades of cream, yellow, orange and mahogany-red

Nasturtiums, specifically Tropaeolum majus Alaska Series are one of the best flowers for kids to sow: the seeds are large, they come up quickly, the flowers are colourful and the leaves are edible. Plants in the Alaska Series are neat and bushy (they don’t climb), have prettily marbled leaves and the flowers, in this separate colour and others and a mix, are shown off just above the leaves. 30cm (1ft). Hardiness rating: H3.