Unusual (but easy) annuals

What I'm really talking about is tender perennials that I grow as annuals in the beds. This includes what we commonly think of as houseplants. The main requirement is that they should strike easily from cuttings and over-winter happily indoors.
By far the best one that I grow in this way is Impatiens niamniamensis. It is a good houseplant, but grown in a fairly shady and moist spot it is transformed.................




Form early summer right up to the first frosts it will be covered "head to toe" in flowers. It will get large and branch freely.

My second staple is Plectranthus argentatus. Loving full sun the silver grey foliage looks good and in late summer the flower spikes emerge...................






My third and final staple is Tradescantia purpurea.......................




I'm always open to suggestions, so what do you grow like this?

 

I grow the following, each year, so consider them my stalwarts:

Nicotiana sylvestris
Coleus (from the Wizard series) - gives me some colour in shady areas where I might struggle with flowering plants)
Cleome (I grow only the White one)
Solanum laciniatum
Leonotis nepetifolia

 

Do you grow them from seed?

Here's another that worked quite well this year - Kalanchoe x houghtonii...................




Those photos were taken in early May.

 

Your going to cost me a small fortune is seeds next year @longk

 

Not really. What I'm talking about are plants that you find in the houseplant section at GC's.
I can supply you some of the plantlets that form on the Kalanchoe leaves if you want some.

 

Ah, I see, sorry. Yes. Houseplants-as-annuals - got it

Coleus I grow from seed, but I also take cuttings of "interesting" ones, including buying the odd dishevelled one in the discount rack if it has huge leaves and/or amazing colouring.

 

Especially ones that do better outdoors than as a houseplant. And seriously easy to propagate.
I'm going to try Impatiens kilimanjari next year too.

 

I've grown a few Iresines this year, wonderful leaf colour and easy from cuttings

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=i...piXgJgM&ved=0CDYQ7Ak&biw=601&bih=906&dpr=1.33

 

I grow Achimenes as house plants and always have more tubercles than I need for the indoor pots so I stick them in a seed tray with some potting compost and use the resulting plants either in hanging baskets or just as bedding. They are generally pest free, tolerant of a range of conditions, appreciate watering once a week or so as bedding and keep flowering until the frosts.