Annuals

How to use Annuals in your Garden

Annuals are flowers that only grow for one season.  At the end of the flowering season they die off and you have to plant new seeds or seedlings the next season if you want to maintain a garden with these flowers. 

Annuals are the brightest and most showy of flowers. Many gardeners rely on them for colour.

You will find that the annuals generally have the most colourful flowers. But they die down at the end of the flowering season.

So because they only last for one season you have to be careful not to rely on them completely for your spring or summer display.

Another problem with annuals is that they can look untidy once they are past their prime and you have to take them out before they start to look tatty. 

You will have noticed that many public gardens remove their annuals even before they begin to lose their appeal.  The pity is that they often do this when they are still in full flower.

Examples of annual flowers are larkspurs, cosmos, petunias, snapdragons, Iceland poppies, pansies, marigolds, primulas, sweet peas, lobelias, alyssum and many more. 

Fortunately there's another group of flowers that is more permanent - and they will probably give you less trouble. These are perennial flowers.