Plants that grow quickly from seed bring us (nearly) instant gratification as they sprout and mature before our eyes. They infill the display in short order and yield fast harvests. As a bonus, they’re often easy growers with low-maintenance needs. Seeds are also easy on the budget.
In addition to their easy enjoyment, fast-growing plants from seed are valuable in climates with short growing seasons. When sowing seeds, use the “days to maturity” indicator to ensure enough time to enjoy the flowering or fruiting phase before conditions change (i.e., freezing or hot temperatures arrive).
From ornamentals to edibles and those that fulfill both garden roles, we’ll review flowers and vegetables that mature in a flash. Enjoy them this season, or plan to sow them in spring, depending on your climate, growing zone, and frost dates.
Toy Choy Bok Choy
Blue Boy Bachelor’s Button
Blue Boy Bachelor’s Button Seeds
Cherry Belle Radish
Cherry Belle Radish Seeds
Calendula
The buds open within a short period after sowing.
Calendula is versatile with its quick, colorful flowers, herbal uses, and beauty in seasonal arrangements. With yellow, orange, pink, and bicolor daisy-ray petals, its single and double blooms bring warmth to chilly days and boast extended blooming.
This flower grows best in fall and spring. In warm climates, it performs over the winter. In cool climates, the flowers emerge from spring through frost and take a break in high summer heat.
Calendula grows easily from seed, with buds opening about 30 days after sowing. Its leaves and flowers are edible and make a beautiful dried or fresh floral addition. Plants may self-sow for a spring bloom.
Sweet Peas
These mature during springtime but perform best during autumn.
Ornamental sweet peas offer casual beauty with fragrant, colorful blooms on twining vines. They are popular springtime growers but perform beautifully in autumn with a delicate surprise of perfume and jewel-tone flowers. The petals are pink, mauve, red, blue, peach, and white.
These frost-tolerant charmers proliferate from seed. Direct sow them after giving them a good scarring, or transplant potted seedlings to enjoy before heavy frost. Ideal growing temperatures are between 55 and 65°F (13-18°C).
Sweet peas cling and climb; for best growth, they need a support structure like a tripod or trellis. Use them as a container focal point for vertical interest. Dwarf varieties quickly reach two to three feet and don’t require support. Opt for ‘Little Sweetheart’ for a bush-type with ruffled, rich pink blossoms.
Nasturtium
They thrive in mild temperatures during fall or spring.
Nasturtium are easy-to-grow annuals with a trailing habit. Their broad, rounded leaves and colorful trumpet flowers make them attractive in containers, vertical planters, hanging baskets, and beds.
They flourish in the mild temperatures of fall and spring and are a good fit for loose, natural, and edible compositions. They also grow as houseplants year-round; sow indoors to brighten up the winter kitchen.
Nasturtium grows quickly from seed but won’t withstand a heavy frost. Look for dwarf selections like ‘Tom Thumb’ and ‘Jewel Mix’ for compact habits and early maturing. The edible leaves and flowers make a lovely garnish for salads and platters with a peppery taste.
Cosmos
The sun-loving flowers bloom nonstop during summer.
Sun-loving cosmos are a summertime favorite with nonstop blooms. Ray flowers float on tall, airy stems. The summer annual is native to the Americas and lends a wildflower look with daisy blooms in vivid shades of yellow, apricot, bright pink, lavender, red, and chocolate (and many more).
Cosmos reseed naturally. These unfussy plants grow in hot, dry conditions with variable soils. Too much water, fertilizer, and organic richness actually hinders their vigor.
Grow cosmos easily from seed in a mass planting for color and to attract pollinators. When flowers finish blooming and go to seed, cut plants back to 12 to 18 inches for a quick rebloom. Let the cut stems fall in place so new seeds germinate for the next generation of blooms.
French Marigolds
The flowers mature easily and bloom into the cold months.
French marigolds produce large pom pon blooms in single or double flowers. In sunny yellow, gold, and garnet, the frilled petals contrast handsomely with feathery, dark green foliage.
Opt for ‘Lemon Drop’ for its cheerful color, prolific blooms, dwarf habit, and fragrance. They grow easily from seed and thrive until deep frost. They’ll slow in the heat of summer to resume flowering as cooler temperatures arrive.
For best growth, provide organically rich soils with good drainage. Deadhead spent blooms to promote budding and blooming.
Lettuce
These crops prefer cool days and nights.
For your ready supply of fresh salad greens, from baby leaves to full-size heads, lettuce thrives with cooler days and nights. Sow multiple rounds for a continual supply, whether in the garden or on the kitchen counter as microgreens.
‘Black Seeded Simpson’ is a crisp, tasty, and ornamental variety with bright green leaves. It adds softness to the front of the annual display when tucked in among cool-season bloomers. It’s heat- and frost-tolerant and quick-growing with a harvest time of three weeks.
‘Truchas,’ a mini-romaine with deep red leaves, dresses up the planter and the salad bowl. It matures in 21 days.
Scarlet Flax
These heirloom annuals bloom quite easily without any deadheading.
Scarlet flax is an eye-catching heirloom annual with a profusion of red flowers that attract pollinators. It’s an easy bloomer and, without deadheading, self-seeds for recurrent color.
These easy-care, low-maintenance growers tolerate variable conditions, including heat, humidity, and cool weather. Direct sow ‘Scarlet’ by scattering seeds on moist soil and gently tamping for contact. The seeds require light exposure to germinate, so there’s no need to cover them with soil. Sow them in late summer for fall color or every two to four weeks from spring through fall.
Annual Phlox
These annuals prefer well-drained soil but can easily adapt to other mix types.
Annual phlox brings a blanket of blooms and a sweet fragrance on mounding, low-growing foliage. Native to the Great Plains, the species is rich pink with numerous cultivars in lavender, red, and white to brighten the front of the border and containers in spring and fall. They also make lovely additions to floral arrangements.
‘Cherry Caramel’ is quick-to-bloom with creamy, tawny petals and dark cherry centers. ‘Grandiflora Starry Eyes’ features star-patterned contrasting eyes on clustered blooms. It begins flowering six to seven weeks after seeding.
Pair annual phlox with allium, sweet alyssum, snapdragons, and violas for a vibrant seasonal display. It prefers loose, humusy, well-drained soils but adapts to various types (as long as they have good drainage). Plants reseed in optimal conditions.
Basil
This herb thrives in sunny and warm conditions.
Basil relishes the sun and warm conditions, forming a bushy habit with bright green or purple leaves, depending on the variety. Different types lend diverse culinary flavors, ready to harvest in three to four weeks.
Italian basils like ‘Genovese’ feature large, sweet leaves. Dwarf varieties like ‘Piccolo’ have little leaves with the same delicious qualities. Lemon-scented basil adds citrus notes, while Thai basils like ‘Siam Queen’ carry a bit of licorice or anise flavor.
Grow basil in full sun with organically rich, well-draining soils and harvest leaves regularly. Basil is tender and dies back with light frost. It’s one of the easiest herbs to grow and has versatile uses. Some gardeners have luck growing it indoors on a sunny windowsill, even rooting it in water year-round.
Violas
These flowers bloom in the cold season.
Violas, with their classically cheery faces in various colors, bloom nonstop in the cool season. They have the greatest impact en masse but also tuck into pots as filler with a profusion of petite flowers.
Among the fastest-flowering violas are the ‘Penny’ series and traditional tricolor Johnny jump-ups. The Penny series brings a range of colors, from clear white to blotched, with early flowering and a uniform form. ‘Penny Blue’ is a sweet addition with a pure mid-to-deep blue face.
Viola tricolor is ready in about 10 weeks from seeding. It showcases purple wings and dark whiskers that contrast with a gold and ivory face.
Violas survive winter in mild climates, tolerating cold spells with temperatures in the 20s°F (-7°C) and sometimes lower. They’re easy to grow in well-draining soils. Plants benefit from deadheading to promote more blooms, channeling energy from seed production into further flowering.
Kale
Most varieties are cold-hardy and grow from seed in less than 50 days.
Not only delicious and nutritious, colorful kale creates textural and visual interest. Whether curly-leaved, feathery, or leathery, in deep green, purple, or red, kale is ornamental in containers and beds.
‘Dwarf Blue Curled’ is an 1800s heirloom with exceptional cold hardiness. Ruffly leaves grow and mature in less than 50 days from seed, and they sweeten after frost exposure.
‘Red Russian’ is useful in seasonal displays and the kitchen. Its mint-green leaves contrast with reddish-purple stems and midribs. The large, deeply cut foliage with wavy margins resembles oak leaves. Plant it as a central container specimen for a feathery splash of color. The 1885 heirloom is cold-hardy and quick to mature, with full plants in less than two months from seed and young leaves in just over 20 days.
‘Redbor’ is a statuesque variety with upright, magenta-red stems. It quickly becomes a focal point with tall, tightly curled leaves. The foliage transitions from dusky blue-green to burgundy and plum in cooling autumn temperatures.
While many ornamental kales have a bitter flavor and waxy leaves, ‘Redbor’ is mild and sweetens as color intensifies in cold weather. It is highly cold-hardy, grows well in the winter, and matures in less than 50 days after seeding.
Sweet Alyssum
These annuals are cold-hardy and can self-procreate during the spring.
Sweet alyssum is a small annual with blooms that don’t stop (until freezing conditions or summer heat, that is). In cool seasons, its profusion of white, pink, or purple pincushion flowers covers the mounding foliage. Their sweet fragrance attracts pollinators and other beneficial insects.
The delicate-looking annuals are tough and hardy down to 20°F (-7°C). Seedlings emerge in 5 to 15 days. Sweet alyssum self-seeds and volunteer seedlings may pop up in the spring. ‘Easter Bonnet,’ ‘Aphrodite,’ and ‘Tiny Tim’ are early-blooming varieties.
In the heat of summer, the foliage turns yellow and fades but rebounds with cooler temperatures. Treat them as cool-season annuals for spring and fall in hot, southern zones.
Radish
These crops develop in cool conditions and help reduce soil compaction.
Radishes produce so quickly that they have to be on the list. The crisp, crunchy, colorful root vegetables develop in cool temperatures and have a compact stature well-suited to raised beds and containers. They also help break up soils to increase aeration and reduce compaction. If you have seeds left over, sow them in bare beds to stabilize soils as a placeholding cover crop.
‘Easter Egg Blend’ combines red, white, pink, purple, and bi-color radish globes. The colorful roots are ready to pick in as little as 30 days.
‘Cherry Belle’ is a classic bright red radish with white flesh and a crisp flavor. These Holland heirlooms won the All-America Selections award in 1949 for their fast growth, easy care, and flavorful roots. The salad radishes are a gardener’s and chef’s favorite. Harvest the little belles when the roots are about 1’ in diameter.
Chives
They develop easily, becoming drought-tolerant with lavender pom-pom like blossoms.
Chives are easy-to-grow heirlooms with a recognizable subtle onion flavor. Their fine blades are among the first to pop up in spring, followed by lavender pom-pom blooms (also edible) that attract pollinators.
These allium cousins are fast-growing and drought-tolerant. They grow to maturity in about 60 days but the flavorful blade-shaped leaves be harvested in less than 50 days after seeding. In mild climates, they remain semi-evergreen during the winter.
Chives thrive in cool, moderate temperatures. They fade in hot climates with high humidity and grow best as cool-season selections in these areas.
Sunflowers
The flower can be sowed in successional rounds.
Sunflowers have cheery faces that follow the summer sun. Blooming through frost, sow successional rounds for all-season color. Mid to late summer sowings yield fall color in a harvest palette.
For a faster display, opt for shorter specimens and plant them in groupings for impact. A speedy, single-stem red is ‘Pro Cut Red.’ Deep crimson flowers top five- to six-foot stalks and bloom 50 days after sowing. ‘Pro Cut Lemon,’ ‘Gold,’ and ‘White’ round out the series of early-bloomers. Alternatively, try an heirloom sunflower blend.
California Poppy
These flowers boast a tough-as-nails nature, tolerating unfavorable conditions.
California poppies have bright orange cups and feathery blue-green foliage. Tough as nails, they grow in challenging situations, including poor soils and along slopes.
The satiny blooms emerge in late spring to early summer. A cool-season annual or short-lived perennial, they pop up in California in the winter in mild microclimates.
Create your own poppy superbloom by scattering seeds generously in the fall for a spring show. Mild climates benefit from late summer and early fall sowing for winter and spring blooming.
Swiss Chard
Sow them frequently for a consistent supply of young greens
Swiss chard is an ornamental leafy green with bright stems and lush, tender foliage. It offers brilliant color in a seasonal planter display and a mild flavor, fresh or cooked, that’s easy to incorporate from garden to table.
Sow seeds frequently for a continual supply of young greens that grow to a harvestable size in less than 50 days. Showy varieties like ‘Bright Lights,’ ‘Orange Fantasia,’ ‘Magenta Sunset,’ and ‘Peppermint’ feature brightly colored stems against deep green or purple leaves.
‘Celebration’ brings bold, multicolored stems and fresh, green leaves. Swiss chard is lovely with edible blooms like violas, calendula, nasturtium, and snapdragons.
Beets
These crops can develop throughout the winter with mild weather conditions.
Beets are best when they come right from the garden. Like radishes, they provide nutrition while working on aerating soils with their bulbous roots.
Sow them six to eight weeks before your anticipated frost date for autumn picking. Beets grow throughout the winter in mild climates.
Baby beets are exceptional in containers, beds, and the kitchen. ‘Robin’ yields bunches of small, deep red, two-inch globes. Harvesting begins at 45 days.
‘Golden Boy’ in sunny golden orange has a mild, sweet flavor and is best harvested young. The uniform globes mature in 45 to 60 days.
Crimson Clover
These crops can help increase soil nutrients.
Crimson clover makes a quick cool-season cover crop for those bare beds between plantings. Cover crops improve and nourish a site through weed suppression, erosion control, reduced compaction, and increased soil nutrients.
Easy to sow, scatter crimson clover seeds evenly and generously. Enjoy the fall and winter greens with minimal maintenance while watering during dry spells. These upright growers have a taproot that fixes nitrogen through beneficial bacteria. One-inch-long red flowers appear in spring and attract beneficial insects.
To prevent spreading, cut crimson clover back before the flowers go to seed. Leave the cut material in place or add it to the compost pile for organic material. During quiet times, use cover crops in raised beds to improve soil.
This frost-tolerant ground cover is hardy to -10°F (-23°C). Sow seeds six to eight weeks before fall’s first frost date, in early spring or late summer as needed.
Sorrel
These plants can develop from spring through fall.
Sorrel yields bunches of tender, flavorful leaves in fresh green with a tart, lemony flavor. Enjoy them fresh or cooked (which mellows their bite).
Red-veined sorrel (Rumex sanguineus) is unique, with deeply lined leaves and scarlet venation. It makes a lovely filler paired with mums, violas, and foxgloves. The young leaves are soft and fiercely tangy, with a hint of sharp raspberry.
In colder climates, sorrel grows from spring through fall and enters dormancy over the winter. Harvest leaves continually from spring until frost. If clumps become large or crowded over time, easily divide the plants. In warm climates, it performs as a fall, spring, and even winter annual.
Bok Choy
A fast-developing leafy green, it is ideal as a late-season crop.
Bok choy, or pak choi, is a mild, sweet, tender cabbage with centuries of history in Asian cuisine. This fast-growing, nutrient-rich leafy green is ready to harvest in less than 50 days from seeding. It is ideal as a late-season planting for an autumn harvest or a spring sowing.
Dwarf cultivars boast quick growth and a compact habit. Small selections are often more heat—and frost-tolerant, making them good options during weather fluctuations.
‘Toy Choy’ is a miniature variety that grows to a petite five inches tall and is ready in as little as 30 days. ‘Baby Choi’ matures in 35 to 60 days and reaches 20 inches tall. Pick it when small and early for tender greens with crisp white stems.
Cilantro
The plant thrives in spring and mild autumn weather conditions.
Cilantro grows for its distinctly flavorful leaves, either tasty or soapy, depending on your tastebuds, and for its seeds (coriander). It develops rapidly and thrives in mild autumn and spring temperatures.
In warm climates, sow seeds in fall to grow as a winter annual. Use it in the herb garden and to embellish seasonal containers. Move it indoors in cold climates for a zesty flavor all season.
Turnips
This root crop is a hearty alternative for potatoes.
Turnips are a centuries-old root vegetable and a hearty substitute for potatoes. The vitamin-packed greens are edible, too.
‘White Lady’ turnips are baby salad turnips with sweet, smooth white skins. Pick them early, at 30 days, for two-inch roots. Enjoy their fresh, crispy crunch, or cook them in stir-fries and other dishes.
‘Purple Top White Globe’ adds interest with purple shoulders above the soil level. Creamy white skins develop beneath. After 50 days, roots reach two to six inches, depending on picking time. Use them mashed, roasted, as fries, or for fresh eating.
