Annual Plants - Annual Flower Guide

All you need to know about annual plants. Types of annuals to use in flower beds. List of annual flowers. Gardening with annuals. Growing annual flowers. Deer resistant and shade annuals. Annual herbs.



Picture of a low border of  mixed annual plants.

Growing annual flowers will bring easy, nearly instant color to your annual flower beds or container garden.

Annuals are plants that grow, bloom, set seed, and die within one growing season. They do not return year after year like perennials do.

There is some overlap between the categories as many plants will survive very mild winters. These are technically tender perennials but they perform as annuals in most parts of the U.S.

I classify any plant that will grow from seed to bloom in a few weeks time as an annual.

Gardening with Annuals

Gardening with annuals allows you the freedom to change your mind and your color scheme every season. You can experiment with all the new varieties the hybridizers develop each year.

You don't have to have a cookie cutter landscape. You can design a garden a unique as you are. You can order annual flowers online and obtain unusual plants that are not available to you locally.

Growing Annual Flowers from Seeds

You can sow annual flower seeds indoors in late winter and have transplants ready to go into the ground after the last spring frost or you can wait until spring and sow the seeds directly into the soil.

Annuals seeds can provide you with an overflowing garden oasis of color and beauty at a modest price. You can have flowers in any range of colors you chose from spring to frost.

The rewards come quickly when you plant annuals from seed. Your landscape can be rejuvenated in a matter of weeks.

You are not restricted to the few varieties sold by your local nursery, you can order the newest varieties online and keep abreast of all the changes in the horticultural world.

Caring for Annual Flower Plants

Your annual plants will need regular water. Drought stress will cause many annual flower plants to set seed sooner than they otherwise would. Remember, an annual plant's mission in life is to set seed.

In order to extend the bloom season, your mission is to prevent it from setting seed for as long as possible.

Unless they are self-cleaning, most annuals will need regular dead heading. If you don't pick off the old blooms, the plants will go to seed and die. Dead heading forces the plants to bloom again in an attempt to set seed.

All of this relentless blooming is hard on annual flower plants so don't forget to feed them a water soluble, bloom-boosting fertilizer every 2-3 weeks.

Perennials vs Annuals

If you want to design a bed once and have it look the way you envision for many years, plant perennials.

In an area where you aren't sure what you want, experimenting with annual bedding plants can help you decide. In a spot where you want something different each year or every few months, an annual flower bed is the way to go.

List of Annual Flowers

This list of annual flowers will brighten your flower beds or annual container garden.

Annuals for Shade

Annuals for shade is a list of the best types of annual flowers to plant in shady annual flower beds. Easy-to-grow shade annuals.

Annuals for Sun

Annuals for sun. List of types of annual flowers. Types of annuals to grow in sunny flower beds or container gardens. Order annual flowers online.

Deer Resistant Annuals

Deer resistant annuals that are easy to grow. A list of deer proof annual plants. About deer repellent plants. Plants deer will not eat. Annuals deer won't eat.

Annual Herbs

Growing annual herbs for the kitchen and the natural healing medicine chest. Growing culinary herbs. A list of herbs for cooking and healing. Easy to make herbal tea remedies.



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