What's the point of annual flowers? An annual debate!
Annual flowers are like Rodney Dangerfield: They “don’t get no respect.” However, if you have no annuals in your garden at all, you are missing out on one of life’s joys and a whole lot of color. Let’s discover some of the best and easiest annual flowers—including beautiful pictures!
Annuals provide gardens with all-season color, but they have to be replanted every year, so they often get the cold shoulder. Perennials are the garden divas; they give one outstanding performance a year and retire to the background to bloom sometime next year. Annuals are the hardworking chorus line, kicking up their heels all summer long.
Salvia ‘Lighthouse’ will add a pop of color to a drab spot in the garden.
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At our farmers’ market, I have seen shoppers fall in love with an interesting annual in bloom, all ready to take it home until they hear that it is “only” an annual, and then they drop it like it was on fire. However, there are many reasons to have annual flowers.
Life without zinnias? Not worth living! Bumblebees and butterflies will also enjoy your zinnias.
The Benefits of Annual Flowers
So what’s the point of annual flowers? They have many advantages and complement perennials well. Here’s how I use annuals:
- Filling in bare spots
- Experimenting with new color combinations
- Adding color to containers
- Providing cut flowers for bouquets all season long.
- Changing the look of the garden every year by growing different annuals
Go from bold and bright to soft pastel or from cottage garden to tropical paradise by switching out your annual plants.
Favorite Annual Flowers
Tall Architectural Annuals
- Tall plants look great as centerpieces, against a wall, or to add a touch of drama to the landscape. Examples are Nicotiana sylvestris, sunflowers, and elephant head amaranth.
Photo: The charming, old-fashioned Nicotiana sylvestris (White shooting star) grows five- to six-feet tall.
Photo: Sunflowers may be annuals, but they may self-germinate from dropped seeds!
Photo: Elephant head amaranth. Does it look like elephant heads trumpeting skyward? The plumes hold their color when dry, too!
Edible Flowers
Expand your palate with some edible flowers like nasturtiums, bachelor buttons, and calendula. Read more posts about Flowers You Can Eat!
Photo: Edible nasturtium. See the Almanac’s Nasturtium Growing Guide for planting information.
Photo: Bachelor buttons (cornflower) as such a gorgeous color and a cottage garden favorite.
Annuals That Double-Duty as Beautiful Dried Flowers
- Grow some everlastings like celosia, globe amaranth, and statice to dry for winter arrangements (pictured below in order).
Photo: Celosia has a velvety, ruffled form that is often compared to a cockscomb and grows in a rainbow of colors!
Photo: Globe amaranth is an easy annual for mixing in garden beds and borders or adding to container gardens.
Statice aka Limonium is a great accent plant for landscape borders and flower gardens. It loves full sun and sandier soil.
Annuals for Hot, Dry Soil
Most annuals do best in full sun with well-drained soil, but there are annuals for every situation.
- Hot, dry soil a problem? Try growing portulaca, tithonia (Mexican sunflower), or gomphrena. They are pictured in order below.
Annuals for Shade
- Shady sites can be brightened up with impatiens, begonias, lobelia, and browallia (shown in order below).
- For shady areas, also look to foliage plants like coleus, iresine, and Persian shield (shown in order below). See more varieties of coleus plants!
Annuals for Moist Soils
- Moist soil is no problem for cleome (spider flower), torenia (wishbone flower), or monkey flower.
One of my favorite gardens is Celia Thaxter’s on Appledore Island off the coast of New Hampshire. Based on the plan of her cutting garden found in her 1894 book An Island Garden, it is almost totally annuals.
Or, plant a mixed border—a mixture of plants including perennials, shrubs, bulbs, vines, and annuals. Don’t be afraid to mix it up!
Browse more annual (and perennial) flowers. See the Almanac’s library of Flower Growing Guides.
Robin Sweetser
Getting Started with Flower Gardening
Building a Raised Flower Bed Garden
Choosing Flowers
Types of Flower Gardens
Flower Gardening for Pollinators
Growing Flowers in Containers
Spring and Fall Bulbs
Caring for Flowers
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Nice looking mammoth Amaranth plants~
I've personally never seen people reject annuals, but I suppose some do. More homes here in WNY plant with annuals than attempt perennials. There's a good mix of both, though, and I agree: that's the way to go. People new to perennials might not realize that some of them only last a few years. You need to check what you buy. And of course, bloom time during the season, required conditions and what the foliage looks like after bloom - some need to be hidden if the greenery gets brown before the rest of the garden fades in late fall. Annuals are great way to do that, plus they are dependable color all season, blooming nearly constantly, with few exceptions (and some just take a break during the hottest couple weeks, then bloom again). And, sadly, but all gardeners know: sometimes a perennial doesn't make it through the winter and we try again or try something new. I keep front space in my garden for annuals and fill the rest with perennials, plus some seeds to slow-grow and give me more color come August. Zinnias, gomphrena are great for that. Gardens are for fun, relaxation, experimentation. Mix it up, try your luck and see what works for you!
Gardening and being outside to absorb some sunlight--- and breathe fresh air--- and get one's hands in delightfully aromatic microbiome-rich soil is good for body, soul, and spirit! For those w/out yards, so is "even" just spreading some newspapers on a kitchen floor and playing with a bag of organic potting soil, some clay pots, and and an assortment of geraniums, ferns, ivies, and herbs for the windowsills! As long as nurseries provide a means for customers to observe distancing (in the same way groceries have been advised to) I hope they will be encouraged to remain open!
My Saliva come back every year. I live in zone 8B. I love them, and so do the bees, butterfly, and hummingbirds.
I appreciate your articles, Robin! I always get something helpful and interesting from them and end up reading them until the end. Thanks for faithfully contributing them.
Just wondering how you think the nurseries will make out in these uncertain times. I feel that they are an essential business but not necessarily life sustaining. I live in an area with tons of little mom and pop greenhouses. I do hope that by the time we are allowed to go out we will still be in time to plant annuals and the nurseries will be ready for us. But what if....
