By this week, it?s pretty much carved in stone that it?s now safe to nip out, buy annuals and plunk them into the ground and certainly into containers.
Annuals are the eye candy of the summer garden. In the sprint for survival, they only have one year to grow, flower and then set seed. They make the most of their time with a gorgeous display.
Most annuals will come into flower a few weeks and will then carry on being floriferous until autumn. Some annuals, such as forget-me-nots look like they come back year after year, but they are actually scattering their own seeds at will to reappear next season in a slightly different spot. Other annuals, if constantly deadheaded to keep them from producing seed, will bloom their heads off until frost blackens them.
What a great boon these workhorses of the garden are. They will cover up any of the yellowing foliage of bulbs and fill in holes between perennials, which take a couple of years to bloom profusely. Many will grow in the shade where nothing else survives (impatiens for instance); and others you must have just for their luscious blooms, no matter what (some of the dahlias).
The other great thing about annuals is that you?ll probably be able to buy them with some part of the plant already in bloom so you can get a taste of the actual colour. Most grow so quickly in the dash to make seeds that you?ll have a reasonable show within a few weeks. You can put annuals and perennials together so that while the perennials are still striving towards maturity, you?ll already have a really good display of colour.
Choosing annuals is the hard part mainly because there are so many good ones. Be a little bit adventurous and try some of the new ones:
These are all show off plants which have to be put together carefully with an eye to making a tapestry of colour. Any of these plants will change your mind about flats of impatiens and petunias. They can be used together (black/purple/silver or red/copper) it only needs imagination and water to make these plants shine.
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