Advice needed on flowers

staticdoor71

Looking for advice if anyone can offer?

Kids want to plan flowers in garden and in pots at front door (outside, gets all the day time sun)

My question is, is there a flower, or a few, that will re flower for them every year?

We missed the boat on planting daffodils last yr will do that later in the year

But what I'm looking for is a flower they can buy now, that's flowering now, that will die and come back again

They are only young but really into this right now... But a gardener I am not

Many thanks for any advice you can offer

Livefornow

You would probably be looking at Bulbs or Tubers ie Gladioli, or Dahlias or even Chrysanthemums which will flower again and again but why limit yourself. Grow annuals which flower in a blaze of colour and then collect the seeds to plant new ones next year.

Mountainsandh

Marygolds and Calendulas are pretty (orange) and they grow really easily ! They'd reseed by themselves in the pot, but for the fun they can collect the seeds themselves and they'll be able to pass on seeds to friends or relatives, they make plenty !

little fingers will easily pluck the Marygold yellow bits after flowering is well finished :
https://orchidflowers.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/5428996700_9c9884f084.jpg

and this seedpod from the calendula when it's a good bit dryer will appear brown, and again little hands will have fun splitting it in their palm, for lots and lots of seeds.
https://garden.org/pics/2016-07-28/kniphofia/1e92be.jpg

I have calendulas growing wild in little crevices in between concrete slabs, and they keep flowering through the Irish winter !

Also fun and in the same vein, poached eggs ! grow like weeds. They'll be sick of collecting the seeds from these ones, and they keep flowering for ages, and since it's inevitable that they reseed themselves in the same pot, they'll be back the year after. The seeds are little black balls, and very easy to spot when flowering is finished.

looksee

Lordy don't let poached egg flowers loose in your garden, they are as bad as spanish bluebells! They have a pretty flower, but they make a sprawling mass of what I can only describe as silage.

Snapdragons (antirrhinums) (three goes at the spelling then looked it up!} stand very well through the summer, have a good chance of flowering a second year, and re-seed, and they have lovely colours and very cute flowers. Nasturtiums can also be guaranteed to regrow from seed with no help at all! And you can eat them, flowers and leaves, in a salad.

macraignil

Here is a link to some plants in my garden flowering at the moment. Some of these do die back in the winter and re-flower the following year. Primrose are good to see flowering early in the year and be careful about forget me not flowers as they will spread easily.

I'd also recommend penstemon and lavender.
and think some flowers that lead onto fruit or use in the kitchen might also be worth considering eg. strawberry, sage, thyme, oregano.

Mountainsandh

looksee wrote: »

Lordy don't let poached egg flowers loose in your garden, they are as bad as spanish bluebells! They have a pretty flower, but they make a sprawling mass of what I can only describe as silage.
.

I curse them and I love them equally !

I have them pretty contained in a flower bed, but some seeds rolled all the way across a 1 m concrete path to a chipped area, and I had to pluck them out last week, even though I had taken great care cleaning them up last year !
I did keep 4 or 5 though, and replanted them in my flower bed.
I still like them.
I like the foliage too actually, it's such a nice bright green.

OP just make sure your poached eggs are well contained in a pot surrounded by a concrete surface that you can sweep thoroughly later, when they've gone to seed.

What's really nice to grow with kids of course too is sunflowers, they get so big little ones love them, and you can collect the seeds for next year too !

And macraignil is right, fruit are great to grow too for little ones. Tomato plants are easy to grow and get to flower, but they may need a bit of support with sticks at some stage, and the wet winds we get are not too good for them so if you have a sheltered but sunny spot, that would be perfect.
I've always bought bags of seeds, but they reseed from their own seeds if you let one sit on the compost beside the plant. I think people grow tomato plants from the commercial varieties too (ie. keep the seeds from tomatoes you eat), but I've never tried. (Lidl usually have nice little sets of 4 or 6 baby plants for cheap I think)

staticdoor71

Thank you all so much for your advice. Really appreciate it
We are going plant/seed shopping tomorrow. They are very excited (so glad I cancelled sky now, no distractions!!!! :-) )
Fingers crossed for us ☺️

Day Lewin

Adding a few ideas from when my kids were small...

Virginian stock; you can sprinkle the seeds on bare soil in the shape of the child's initial, then it grows up into a mat that shape in a couple of months. Quick and satisfying.
Nasturtiums - very fast, very colourful, and self-seed for years. Bonus: mentioned in the Pooh Bear books - "Nasturshalums"
Wallflowers; you plant the little plants (from a shop) and have to wait until next winter, but then you get beautiful coloured flowers with sweet scent, in winter. Bonus: the seeds of wallflowers can be sown directly into stony corners and they will grow! (hence the name, Wall flowers)
Beans - the way they climb up the poles with little twisty tendrils is fascinating to children. You need "twiggy pea-sticks" to support the plants - my children used to love this name. (I still do! Twiggy pea-sticks!)
Bonus: you get edible pods, eventually. Snag: slugs eat the little plants and leaves
Radishes: grow very fast, pretty pink roots, and you can eat them.

What did you buy? Interested!

Wheety

I'm going to go against what you're asking for an recommend sunflowers. They grow quickly and have great big flowers on them. They You can harvest the seeds yourself for replanting next year.

Graces7

[QUOTE=looksee;106844543]Lordy don't let poached egg flowers loose in your garden, they are as bad as spanish bluebells! They have a pretty flower, but they make a sprawling mass of what I can only describe as silage.

I am doing just this! There is no real garden here but I have space and need something bright that will not mean work i cannot manage

So poached egg flowers can revel here and I would love mint.

Would love the bluebells you mention also .. and those Japanese anemones

None of these would be a threat as very little here.

looksee

Spanish Bluebells are a threat anywhere, they are outbreeding the local ones. Put in bluebells, certainly, but the native bluebell, hyacinthoides non-scripta.

Graces7

looksee wrote: »

Spanish Bluebells are a threat anywhere, they are outbreeding the local ones. Put in bluebells, certainly, but the native bluebell, hyacinthoides non-scripta.

Beg to disagree. Having read round the matter, in this particular environment, they will be no threat to anything. And a brightness.

They can go next to the gunnera that is already here.

In formal gardens and near woodlands, a different matter altogether, but here, fine, as are the limanthes.

looksee

Its not something on which the world turns. It might be worth checking whether Spanish bluebells have already appeared on your island though, and whether you want to introduce them. I totally agree they are very colourful, and stand better than the native ones, but the situation is a bit similar to the grey and red squirrels, or the rhododendrons, or Japanese Knotweed, attractive in themselves but a death knell for local species.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

looksee wrote: »

Spanish Bluebells are a threat anywhere, they are outbreeding the local ones. Put in bluebells, certainly, but the native bluebell, hyacinthoides non-scripta.

Absolutely. Spanish Bluebells are a very real threat to native Bluebells. They readily cross pollinate with the natives creating a hybrid. They also spread much quicker than the native Bluebell. Many surveys have shown the drastic impact of the invasive alien species on our bluebell woods. Their cross pollination can impact across miles. There is far too much compliancy about this.