Quick growing plants from seeds

Are there any quick growing/quick to flower plants that anyone can recommend?

Zinnias are pretty fast and here they bloom til winter.

Moss Rose is an easy plant to grow, grows fairly fast, and you can root sprigs if they break off, intentionally or accidently! If you're not familiar with it, it's an OLD flower, my mother grew it in old dishpans, etc. I prefer the double, and both kinds come in different colors. It reseeds itself, as do zinnias. It's a rather short plant, (up to 6 in.?) . It "bunches" out well.I think you'll like it!
Doe

which is the moss rose you are talking about?

http://www.floridata.com/ref/P/port_gra.cfm

or

http://www.floridata.com/ref/P/port_gra.cfm

thanks!

I could only get one to come through. The first one is not the one I grow, but it will work. Portulaka is what I get, it has tinier leaves and really double flowers that reseed themselves. It will eventually revert to single, but it's still pretty, and easy to grow, either in the garden or a pot. The first one does, too, but I like these better!Good luck! The seeds are very tiny, like petunia seeds! Just sow them and thin them out and transplant anywhere!
Doe/Audrey

Quick growing easy plants in addition to zinnias try: bachelor buttons, marigolds, cosmos, sunflowers, nasturtiums, and four o'clocks. All will readily reseed if you let them. Nasturtiums and four o'clocks are actually perennials and may come back from the underground tubers if it's not too cold in your area for that.

Karen

I'll second: Marigolds, cosmos


Cleome
Dill
morning glories
Poppies (annual)

We just moved here 2 years ago and everyone swore to us that some years it hardly hits freezing in the winter. But the last 2 winters have been terrible, highs in the teens for weeks at a time, ice, snow, I wanted to die!

Tiff,

Probably does "some years" whenever that is. Reminds me of the ice storms in Portland OR only happening about every 20 years, so the locals said.

The link to moss rose (portulaca) describes it as being hardy to zone 5. That's good news for me. I planted some this spring but assumed it would be an annual only. Maybe it will be a perennial for me. I hope so. I bought mine, though, as Lowe's had them for $1.50 for a 4" pot. Grows fast as a ground cover blooms profusely all summer. In So. CA it blooms year around.

Karen

Karen, mine has never performed as perienials, but they self seed very well and do come back every year from seed. I've loved it since I was a little girl.
Doe

I am hoping Home Depot or Lowes carries it, does anyone know if it's called anything other than "Moss Rose" in different parts of the country?

Doe,

I'll just wait and see. I bought it with the idea that it would not be a perennial here. If it is, that's terrific. If not, I'll hope it will reseed for next year.

Tiff,

I've not heard it called anything except moss rose or portulaca. Maybe someone else has.

Karen

I've only seen it as Portulaca or moss rose too, there may be other names but those are definitely the most common. As far as hardiness, where I am in zone 9 they don't come back unless they reseed themselves, so there's no way they're going to be perennials in zone 5, I think that site must either have the wrong info, or else they're using hardiness in a different way (seed catalogs will often talk about hardy, half hardy, and tender annuals but it refers to how they can handle frosts, and doesn't mean actual hardiness, so maybe that's what they meant?)

Only called potulaca or moss rose up here too. Nasturium is an annual here.

doe--how do you know if it self seeds or comes back as a perenial? mine came back this year --i started with plants lasst year -didn't know it was easy to grow with seeds

If it's a perenniel, it usually comes back from the "stump" of the old plant. An annual won't do that, the seeds usually scatter around the ground where the last years plants were. I hope I'm making myself clear? Sometimes Oldtimers Disease gets the best of me!
Doe

makes perfect sense to me---thanks