My experience has been that seed-grown perennials are bullet-proof & tough as nails. I don't bother with annuals (except for a few containers) because I designed my garden beds to showcase perennials, both seed- and nursery-grown.

It has little to do with impatience. It has a lot to do with planning. When I moved to my current location, the first thing I did was a shade study--I noted which areas of the property got sun between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on June 21, the summer solstice. That information was critical to siting perennials in the beds I designed.

Generally, leggy plants are reaching for light.

Check a few garden design books out at the library and, what's even more important, define your garden goals. That's the first step.

Wildflower annuals, the kinds that come in mixes, are not good bedding plants in a typical landscape. They are great for establishing and naturalizing in a prairie landscape (or pocket prairie) along with native perennials and native grasses. Some are very neat and give season long blooms. If quick & easy was your goal, you did expect too much from a can or pack of wildflower seed. I have a prairie landscape, its taken years to establish starting with removing all lawn, existing shrubs, conventional hybrid perennials etc. Mostly I sow seed in fall, I carefully choose which species to buy or I collect seed of individual species that will fit in well and have spent time working out a theme, researching plants to create the kind of look I want, creating a base which means "dumbing" down the soil or doing the work to make sure there is good drainage with lean soil.

Most wildflowers do not like rich garden soil or shade.

Its not something you go half way on, you either need to keep it conventional or really jump in boldly and move toward a more natural "wild"scape to make it work and create a beautiful result. Otherwise, you will end up with a mess.

There are several varieties of native perennials and annuals that will fit in well in a typical border but a mix of W. F. seed is not a good way to carry you through a season, the result would be haphazard and "weedy".

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Tue, Jun 3, 14 at 1:46

definitely go with the perennials over annuals any day.

Well I think you hit the nail on the head by describing leggy plants and even thinking that it might need more sun.

I think annuals that reseed, or that you can get seeds and reseed manually, are fine. They tend to flower throughout the growing season, as opposed to just a certain time, and usually for a short time.

But because my area has water restrictions, I have found that I tend to like perennials or drought-resistant plants (which usually are not plants that die back in the winter).

Well, I see at least that you live in the States & in 7b which encompasses a wide area across the country! But, since your wildflower annuals are leggy & it's now June, I can only assume you are dealing with a heavily treed lot, or sowed in too much shade, one way or another.
But shade & dry soil, may really limit your selections of perennials simply because, most of the shade lovers also want it moist!
Which sounds to me, like you are facing a rather challenging dilemma, to say the least... perhaps Hosta may survive? That is, if it isn't extreme drought you experience...

There are quite a number of shade-loving perennials beside hosta that don't require constant moisture. My own shade beds include lady's mantle, perennial geranium, stokesia, turtlehead, Solomon's seal, coral bells, daylilies, Virginia knotweed, Jacob's ladder, Lenten rose, euonymus, globeflower, astilbe, Hakonechloa, toad lily & columbine among others. Only one bed has tree roots to contend with but as the tree is a crabapple, the perennials have adapted well in spite of the roots. My soil is slightly acid sandy loam.

Thanks for all the feedback. This is only my second year gardening and I appreciate perennials more this year than I did last year.

As for planning, I should have done more of that. I am seing that now. I do however know what areas get sun, shade, or part sun and when, pretty well but didn't do a good job placing the small annuals. The bed with the most sun is full however (with mostly seed sown perennials) so pulling the annuals out really didn't bother me.

The area is close to a plum tree. I would guess the roots do steal all the moisture. Very good point! I have already replaced some of the annuals with 1 brunnera, 2 heucheras, and 1 heucherella. They have been in the ground for about a week and seem to be doing well.

I definitely do not want a "wild scape" but I'm not into cookie cutter gardens either.

gardenweed: I have alot of the shade plants you mentioned, others I have never heard of and will need to research. My neighbor gave me a small plant last year that she didn't know the name of that looks like turtlehead from looking at pictures online. I now have seedlings showing up all around the area.

If it is in fact turtlehead it could go in the mostly shade bed.

Everyone, thanks so much. I love gardening and gardenweb. I have learned so much on here over the winter and still have so much more to learn.

If you are into it, I am surprised, make that amazed, at how well Silver King Artemisia does in part shade, I mean areas that are wa-a-ay more shade than sun. I've planted a long line of these "free plants" and am going to town with them in the not so sunny dry spots. They stand straight and tall and really brighten up the area. I just started even more along my difficult west side, its up high and theres lots of tree roots, only morning sun in various amounts. Its gotten really "artemisia-y" and "silvery" over there all along my long west side under the hackberry's which suck the ground dry. All they need is a spring trim, no watering and they transplant very easily.

Annuals have a place, its taken me years to realize it. Sleep-Creep-Leap is the saying. The 1st year when your perennial sleeps, annuals provide excitement and gratification. Year two, your perennial is creeping, bigger but not full grown and annuals, mabye not as many, still play a part. It's during the third the Leap year when perennials come into their own and if you use annuals it's your preference now, not to fill in a gap.

I looked up Silver King Artemisia. It is a very striking plant. Would look great on our slope at the back of the garden. Will research it more. Thank you.

unbidden, that is true. I've not thought about it that way before. It does seem as if some plants skipped the creeping and went straight to leaping though.

southern, they spread by underground runners and can be considered a thug in certain situations. If you get one plant, you can eventually make many new ones by digging a stem which has a root, you know, like when you want to make the whole west side into a bank of silver. Just kidding (but not exaggerating). Most good nursery's sell it, its pretty common. I have Artemisia Silver Mound too, its pretty tolerant as well, does good in part sun if you want a neat mound type. Of course they also love full sun.

full sun is hard to come by on our property. the hill i'm talking about is mostly shade. it might be a good choice for our fenced in "dog" yard planted along the back and one side of the fence if he doesn't kill it before it becomes established. I don't really want to plant something with underground runners on the hill behind my garden area.

I hear ya. I have some shade areas too. Here is what I have had luck with thats easy from seed you could try. They do better in full sun but they will bloom in shade and stay upright. You name it, I've tried it. These are all easy to grow wild flowers about 2ft tall. You can dead head them in fall or let them naturalize which they will very easily. These are all easy to find in seed packets.

Annual gaillardia--comes up super easy, grows fast blooms non stop all summer until frost.

Mealycup sage--native perennial that blooms well and stays upright in shady spots, very easy from seed.

Purple coneflower--need to sow seed in fall for cold stratification. Takes a season to develop into a blooming sized plant.

Lanceleaf Coreopsis--super easy from seed, plant can be practically pulled out of ground and transplanted elsewhere if you want, they fill in fast and make a good filler until other plants fill in. Blooms in spring only but makes a nice green ground cover. They will carpet an area if you don't thin them but its easy to pull unwanted ones out.

Purple Winecups--they are blooming right now on the sides of the roads here, impossible to miss, you can buy seeds or collect from wild. There are also White Winecups.

Black Eyed Susans--- I have Rudbeckia 'hirta' which is a biennial out there blooming like crazy in a shady spot. Plant now and next year they will be fabulous.

I've purchased those mixed wildflower packets before, very disappointing and usually they only have a brief bloom time, I did two packs this year and said never again, waste of money. My description is "puny". These I listed are good, reliable and have presence.

Oh and I do have a "wild-scape"--maybe not what you visualize when I say wild, Its 95% natives here, very natural but still a garden. Ha ha, just had to throw that in.

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Wed, Jun 4, 14 at 1:03

I think I had some gaillardia, Lanceleaf Coreopsis and coneflower in the seed mix. Some of the plants look like it anyway so I will let them live and move them later on. I figured they needed plenty of sun too.

I do have a purple coneflower growing in mostly sun that is in its second year. I could collect seed in fall and then sow them in the other area.

I've not seen any Purple Winecups on roadsides here. Yellow flowers bloom everywhere on roadsides now. I'm near Anderson, SC.

Mealycup sage looks like a great plant. It will go on my list.

Thank you for putting so much thought and effort into your replies.

No more "puny" plants from seed for me lol.