Annuals: Bright Blooms to Light Up Your Garden

During winters cold dreary days, gardeners look hopefully forward to Spring, as they leaf through their catalogues. In vivid contrast to the grey skies, we gaze longingly at page after page of bright cheerful blooms. Many of these are annuals, a class of plants that bloom only for one year, then don't reseed the next year. These often showy plants and flowers are the perfect filler for the skimpy bare patches in many gardens. Annuals also are used to create some simply lovely container plantings.

There are annual varieties for every season and type of light and soil. The earliest spring annuals are pansy, poppy, phlox,verbena, viola and coleus. Sweetpeas and stock fill the garden with their haunting sweet scents and light up the whole area with their white and pastel colours. When buying annuals from your local garden center, choose only healthy plants with strong stems. You can expect many of the plants will be rootbound with the younger rootlings wrapped tightly around the soil. When you remove the plant from its cell or pot, simply break them open from the base and place in the soil. In my 45 years of gardening, I've never lost a plant using this method. Have your soil beds prepared before you purchase your new plants, if possible. This way, you can come home and within a short time, have your early garden set in.

Sometime in April or May, you can begin adding warm season annuals to your garden. Cheerful marigolds, sweet nicotiana, petunias and the rustic cornflower with its clear blue frills, add texture and dimension to the garden. Even in your darkest shadiest planting areas, there are annuals which will add interest and light. Annual foxglove, ornamental grass such as Oryza, with its graceful ebony fronds, and the sensuous night scented stock. , that can attract the eye and delight the senses.

Many of the annuals become leggy after their first hard bloom. If you want a continuous show of colour, you will need to pinch them back halfway, to encourage their original bushy vigorous growth. This is especially true of those annuals used in containers and hanging baskets. They also require fairly frequent feeding to help maintain their health and colour. Liquid kelp or fish emulsion are fine organic ways to feed your annuals and minimize risk of burning as the days lengthen and summers heat begins. For annuals like impatiens, that require an acidic soil, a product such as MirAcid is a great way to ensure they get the pH they need.

If you are new to gardening, and you're not feeling all that confident, give annuals a try. Start small, with pots and baskets. Find out what works for your location. Before long you'll be creating a garden that you truly will be proud of.