Annuals are the gardener’s secret to a landscape that looks like it’s always at its peak. These powerhouses of color can stitch together garden beds, boost curb appeal, and attract wildlife. There are so many to choose from that there’s no end to the fun combinations and color schemes that you can create with annuals. Whether sun or shade, dry or moist, in containers or in the ground; there’s an annual that can get the job done. Read on for some of our favorite annuals and how we like to use them.
Create Containers Bursting with Beauty
Putting together the perfect flower pot is one of the greatest joys of gardening season. A lush pot featuring one kind of plant like petunias, geraniums, or angel wing begonias can be an elegant and simple statement. For mixed containers, think about thriller, filler, and spiller. A dramatic statement plant, often taller or larger than the others, is your thriller. Try grasses, canna lilies, salvias, elephant ears, or dracaena spikes for thrillers. For tried and true spillers, check out ivy, vinca, petunias, sedum, creeping jenny, and sweet potato vines. Almost anything can be a filler as long as it gives the pot a nice full appearance. Geraniums, lantana, coleus, verbena, dahlias, petunias, and ferns are all beautiful fillers.
These suggestions are just the beginning. Get creative and let your imagination be your guide! Need a little inspiration? We’re here to help you make the perfect pot and we also have gorgeous premade containers and hanging baskets all ready to go if that’s more your style.
Use Annuals to Dress Up Your Garden Beds
Annuals are the perfect way to dress up garden beds! They look fabulous planted in the ground and often get bigger than they would in containers. While regular watering will still be important, they’ll dry out more slowly in the ground than in pots and buy you some time between waterings.
In a sunny spot, a colorful carpet of petunias is stunning and brings color to garden beds all season long. Try filling in around shrubs and perennials with big floriferous geraniums for a high impact display or peppering in tropicals like canna lilies or colocasia for an exotic look. Marigolds make a long-lasting colorful border that’s great for curb appeal and dahlias can take any garden bed from ho-hum to luxurious with their bodacious blooms.
Need some color in a darker spot? Coleus, impatiens, and begonias are marvelous for shady areas. Tuck clumps of impatiens throughout a hosta bed for a colorful display all summer. Wax begonias look amazing planted en masse as a ground cover. Why not try some taller begonias, caladium, and coleus where you need some height?
Most annuals are happy in the ground, but make sure to pay attention to the basic preferences of the plant for best performance. For example: Succulents aren’t a good choice for moist or shady areas. Calibrachoa prefer to be in containers and aren’t recommended for in-ground planting. Dahlias prefer moist, rich soil and won’t do as well in dry areas.
Plant Annuals for the Fauna
Birds and pollinators appreciate annuals too! If you’re waiting for your pollinator garden to mature or you have some gaps in bloom times, planting annuals is a great way to tide our flying friends over. If you don’t have any garden space but you can plant a few containers or window boxes, annuals can be a great way to support pollinators without a lot of room.
Salvia, cuphea and zinnias will bring in the hummingbirds, who love visiting each flower to sip nectar. Zinnias, Mexican sunflowers, lantana, pentas, and verbena are beloved by butterflies. Cosmos, zinnias, Mexican sunflowers, borage, and flowering herbs like mint, oregano, and basil are bee favorites. The more you plant, the more they will visit!
Caring for Your Annuals
To get best performance from flowering annuals, water and fertilize regularly. Starting with a high quality potting soil in your containers will get your plants off to a good start. Slow release fertilizer and compost will give them a boost in pots and in the ground. Many plants appreciate deadheading to keep them flowering, so removing spent blooms is a good idea. If your plants start looking raggedy mid-season, many of them can be cut back to encourage a flush of lush new growth. We’re always here to help if you have questions about the specific plants you’re growing.
Come on down and check out our greenhouses full of colorful annuals waiting to be planted! We’ll help you find the perfect plants, containers, and potting soil to set you up for success. Happy planting!
