Garden Plants
An Overview of Annuals
The variety of garden plants encompasses a rainbow of species and varieties.
One of the most popular and prevalent garden plant types is an annual.
By definition an annual garden plant lives for only one year.
This garden plant completes its entire life cycle in a single growing season.
It germinates, develops into a mature garden plant, blooms, sets seed, and finally dies,
all in the span of several months.
Growing beautiful annuals as a garden plant
For a show of pure colour in a garden, few garden plants can match the beautiful profusion of flowering annuals. Planted in generous groupings, Pansies, Cosmos and Impatiens are prolific bloomers.
Many garden plant annuals bloom practically non-stop from late spring or early summer
until the winters first frost. Some annuals, especially hardy ones such as
sweet alyssum and larkspur, can reseed in your garden.
These garden plants may come back the next year without your having to plant them again.
Most annual garden plants die because of the hormonal trigger set off by seed formation or ripening.
Gardeners can subvert this natural phenomenon, at least for a certain period, by continually removing
the faded flowers, a practice called “dead heading,” which encourages the annuals
to continue blooming and beautifying your garden and flower beds.
Some modern annuals are sterile and do not set seed. These garden plants flower without
deadheading, until the first frost kills them.
Impatiens, petunias and marigolds are the most popular annuals that used as garden plants each year.
/> There are many varieties of annuals and they are very easy to grow.
Many less familiar annuals such as the Swan River daisy
and Blackfoot daisy are delicate to look at
, being very dainty in flower and form.
They are great as a garden plant when you want to create a lovely texture
in the garden that will complement and not compete with other garden plants.
Garden Annuals
Classifications of Annuals
There are more than 60 types of Annuals. These garden plants can be grown from seeds
that are sown directly into the garden soil, or started indoors.
They can also be bought from most garden centres or plant nurseries as seedlings
and transplanted as a garden plant after the threat of frost has passed.
Annuals are classified into several broad categories, all with different characteristics.
Knowing what types of these flowers you are growing helps you to understand their needs and habits as garden plants, to help you get the most from your plantings.
TENDER PERENNIALS
Many of the Annuals sold at your local garden centre will likely be tender perennials.
These are long-blooming in their native habitats, but planted in cold weather climates
kills them because cold weather is not in their genetic makeup as garden plants. Zonal Geraniums and Blue Salvia are two such examples.
WARM-SEASON ANNUALS
Flourishing in heat and blooming best in summer, warm-season annuals such as Zinnia,
marigold and cosmos cannot survive even a light frost.
Because these garden plants take months to mature and begin flowering,
you may want to sow seeds indoors and transplant them after the threat of frost has passed.
COOL- SEASON ANNUALS
Nasturtium, sweet alyssum, pot marigold, and others of this classification flower
best during cool weather and wither or die during summer’s heat.
Cutting them back when they are heat-stressed in mid-summer,
helps them bloom again as a beautiful garden plant when cooler weather returns.
HARDY ANNUALS
This type of cool-season annual withstands the most cold as a garden plant.
Sow the seeds in spring before frost danger has passed for spring germination.
Hardy annuals include the Iceland Poppy and Larkspur.
HALF-HARDY ANNUALS
Not as cold hardy as Hardy annuals, half hardy garden plants, such as Madagascar Periwinkle,
Spider Flower and Lisianthus, withstand cold weather in the Spring and Autumn
but are killed by hard frosts. Plant them in spring after all frost danger has passed.
You do not need a lot of skill to grow most annuals, but you will need to put in a fair amount of work to keep them looking attractive as garden plants. They are beautiful garden plants, dependable, long blooming and make a showy and beautiful border for your garden from early summer until frost.
