Seeds Vs Plants - Starting Out

My Pollinator/Wildflower Garden, May 12, 2020

Lance-leaved tickseed (Coreopsis lanceolata)

Common tickseed (Coreopsis leavenworthii)

As my wildflower garden part of my landscape continues to develop, I am always cognizant of the dichotomy of starting with seeds or plants. Social media pages are crammed full of posts from people looking for seed to start their pollinator gardens. Far fewer are looking for reputable nurseries that sell plants. To many people, it must seem easier and more economical to sow seed. Generally, it's not, but there are exceptions. Some seed keeps its viability for enough months after ripening to germinate from one of those seed packets sold in the trade or in hand-collected bags and containers of those looking for a short cut to a "meadow". What too many fail to realize is that seeds are complex organisms that contain a living embryonic plant waiting for its germination day. For a great many species, this wait can't last much more than 3 months before the embryo dies and the seed becomes non-viable.  So many seed packets sold commercially are simply out of date.
Planting an area with plants seems to be more expensive than most people can realistically afford. At anywhere from $4-8 per plant, planting even a small area like I have would cost many hundreds of dollars if planted strictly with plants. Some folks seem to think that I must be that wealthy as I champion the planting plants approach. I'm not wealthy...
Many plants will reseed once they are established. It doesn't take more than a couple of tickseeds, for example, to eventually have hundreds. I did not purposely plant either of the Coreopsis species in the photographs above. They came in as "extras" in pots of plants I was growing in my nursery. One growing season later, I have dozens blooming in my landscape. Next year, I might have hundreds if I were not to weed some of them out. Alexa says that you can never have too many Coreopsis, but she's wrong on this one...

Chapman's goldenrod (Solidago odora var. chapmanii)

The same is true for most goldenrods (Solidago spp.). There are few better pollinator plants than the goldenrods, but all sucker to some extent and all reseed extensively if allowed to. As I look out over my collection of wildflowers and native grasses, I see that I have seedling Chapman's goldenrod (S. odora var. chapmanii) virtually everywhere this spring. Last fall, they were confined to a small clump of 5 at the eastern border.  It would have been extremely foolish and not very cost effective for me to have originally planted more.
What many folks just getting into the concept of wildflower "meadows" fail to possess, apparently, is patience; maybe a lack of vision; possibly enough research.  Meadows are not created instantly. They take time to develop and vision to see what they will eventually become. They take commitment to manage them over time. It's really about putting the pieces in place and then letting nature take its course - with a gentle hand of assistance from time to time.
Some plants will not easily reseed in a landscape. It's these that you have to make decisions on as to how many you want and exactly where you will add them. My butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) has done well in my new landscape, but I've planted every one of them. I know from experience that if I let the seed ripen and disperse that none of them would likely fall in my garden and virtually none, if they did, would germinate and turn into mature plants. I collect the seed they make, I sow it in flats and I add the seedling plants when they're mature enough. I also planted the Indianplantain (Arnoglossum floridanum). I don't need more than two anyway. If I eventually want more, my two plants will make more seed that I can propagate.

Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Florida Indianplantain (Arnoglossum floridanum)

Knowing what your individual plants are likely to do over time is one of the most-significant aspects of planning that you can incorporate. In my experience, simply scattering packets of seeds fails to produce many plants. I find it just as fast and more effective, to add plants - putting in the pieces and waiting. By adding many that are likely to reseed will do the "seed scattering" for you - more effectively than you will. You then spend your budget on the things that you also really want, but species not as likely to readily expand their populations over time. 
It's worked pretty well for me so far - all with less than 50 plants to start with. Most of those, I grew myself from seed I saved from my former landscape so my budget for this part of my landscape was minuscule, but even if I had purchased them all, it would have still been in the financial reach of most - and you can't really do a pollinator garden on the cheap.