Annuals
Annuals generally live only for one season. It is based on the Latin word "annus", which means 'year'. This means that the flowers complete their complete life cycle in a year.
Annuals are also called as seasonal flowering plants, which flower for three to four months only. The plant, which germinates, flowers and dies in a year, is called as an annual plant.
Annuals go through their entire life cycle, from seed to seed in one growing season. This means that they come up in the spring, grow, flower, set seed and then die after the frosts in the fall. These live longer than a year if they are prevented from seed setting.
Gardeners grow a wide variety of annuals in their gardens, as these are the most colorful and vibrant of all the plants. The plants are available in various sizes ranging from small border type plants to 8-foot height. You can choose from either cold weather or hot weather varieties, making it easy to change a walkway border or container for a different look every season.
Generally, annuals can be grown easily from seed; however buying plants is a faster way to achieve the best effect. Though this may get expensive, these plants are great for creating instant effect and incorporating color to your garden. Planting annuals gives you an advantage as it provides you the alternative of changing the design of your garden after a year. The majority of them are tender and some of them like phlox look beautiful and are excellent as borders and hedges.
Another benefit of using annual plants in the garden is the ease of accessibility. Thus, these plants are favorites of commercial growers.
Annuals are a perfect choice for urns, hanging baskets, patio planters and small containers. They help to decorate your surroundings with variety of colors. By planting these, you can select different plants each year, which helps to give your gardens a very different color and texture scheme.
There are five different types of annuals. They are listed below:
- Hardy: These can survive in cold temperatures and some light frost. Examples are dianthus, calendula, cornflower, pansy, stocks, viola, etc.
- Half-hardy: These can tolerate some cold temperature, but cannot tolerate frost. Few examples are blue sage, celome, forget me not, strawflower, torenia, etc.
- Tender: This type cannot tolerate cold temperature and should be planted when there is no risk of frost. Few examples are balsm, begonia, celosia, coleus, impatiens, morning glory, petunia, verbena, vinca, zinnia etc.
- Cool-season: This type prefers the cool seasons of spring and fall. Examples are geranium, petunia and snapdragon.
- Warm-season: This type of annuals do not tolerate frost. Examples are pentas, blue daze and four o' clocks.
With such a variety of different types of annual flowers, you can easily be able to find the ideal flowers for your garden.
If you are interested to know about how to grow the different types of annuals in the garden, then read further.