How to Choose Annuals (2024)

FAQs

How do you pick annuals? ›

Water Annuals Every Day

Many annuals need water every day, especially if they are in the sun. Don't wait for your annuals to wilt before you water. Instead, look for signs such as loss of gloss on leaves. You can also tell if your plants need water by sticking your finger into the soil to see if it's dry.

An annual, such as a zinnia, completes its life cycle in one year. Annuals are said to go from seed to seed in one year or growing season. During this period, they grow, mature, bloom, produce seeds and die. Summer annuals complete their life cycle during spring and summer; most winter annuals during fall and winter.

Superbena Plum Wine Verbena splashes out of the mix, adding a touch of cool color to the otherwise warm mix of Supertunia Latte petunia and Sunsatia Blood Orange Nemesia. This combo can be enjoyed spring and summer and into fall.

Look at the foliage and stems.

Don't just look at the flower -- look at the leaves and the stems to make sure they're neither dry and withered nor mushy and slimy. Green, solid stems and foliage make for a good, healthy flower.

annual, any plant that completes its life cycle in a single growing season. The term is usually applied to herbaceous flowering plants in which the dormant seed is the only part of an annual that survives from one growing season to the next.

Use Dracaena spikes or red leaf Cordylines as the central focal point in your summer annual flower container garden. Other options include various grasses, including the ever-popular King Tut papyrus. Or try Cannas for a tropical look with colorful flowers.

An annual plant completes its life cycle in one year.

Other annuals have their lives cut short before they can set seed because frost arrives.

If you want a little less maintenance, space annual flowers on a more typical 8-12” on center planting pattern Kole says. That allows room for plants to spread, and they'll look better and better as summer goes on.

Can I plant petunias and marigolds together? ›

Petunias don't directly benefit from marigolds as a companion, but they make a great pair. Petunias are heavy feeders, and marigolds are not. Therefore when planting the two together, the petunias won't be fighting for nutrients since the marigolds won't be using as much.

Plan your layout

You will then stagger the sizes so that the shortest plants are along the front edges of the flower bed. For beds that are meant to be seen from one side you will simply plant the tallest flowers at the back of the bed and shorter varieties at the front.

How to cut flowers. Harvest flowers during cool times of the day when they are plump and perky - early morning and late evening are best. If it's warm, sunny or excessively windy, postpone picking to allow the flowers to rehydrate. Always use clean, sharp tools.