Annual Flowers add Color to Your Garden

Don't get me wrong. I love my perennials. They offer beautiful blooms and faithfully return year after year.

They are less work.

Unfortunately their blooming season is short. You can plan your garden in such a way as to have flowers blooming all season, but the number of blooms per square foot will be low. The spring bloomers will still be taking up space in the garden throughout the summer, and vise versa. Except for isolated incidences, your perennial garden will sport more green than color.

While the annuals may be a little more work, they are inexpensive and with proper care will bloom for a long period of time.

I limited the list to flowers that I have found do well here in the south. Northern gardener may have a shorter growing season but their choice of annuals is wider.

Cosmos look like bright, colorful daisies. Their leave remind me of ferns and the flowers are perched high on long, thin stems. They are a good choice for southern gardens as they are tolerant of heat and drought. They can be sown directly into the garden or started inside.

Sensation Mix Cosmos 300 Seeds

'All Sorts Mix' Cosmos - 100 Seeds

Bright Lights Cosmos - 50 Seeds, 2 g - Orange

There are several things I really like about four o'clocks. Their flowers come in a wide variety of colors, not only between plants but on the same plant as well. A plant that offers yellow flowers early in the season may be sporting pink flowers as the season winds down. Another nice thing about the four o'clocks is that they reseed themselves. If you prefer to harvest the seeds, they are easily plucked from the dying flowers.

They are hardy flowers that will still thrive in dry, poor soil. The flowers open in the late afternoon sun, and they smell heavenly.

Four o'clocks are an excellent annual for Southern gardens, but they do very well up north as well. I remember picking the seeds off my mother's flowers when I was a child. She only bought the seeds once and never had to buy them again.

Impatiens are a great choice for that shady corner in your garden. They are a popular bedding plant will bloom from early summer to first frost. In really mild climates they have been known to bloom year-round.

The seeds can be planted directly in the ground, but starting them in pots six to eight weeks before the final frost will give you a jump on the blooming season. They are a low maintenance plant and an excellent choice for your garden.

Marigolds don't need an introduction. Their flowers are little sunburst of yellow, orange, and red. There are tall varies and short, variegated petals and solids, as well as multicolored flowers. Like the impatiens, they are a popular bedding plant.

Marigolds are a hardy plant and very drought tolerant. They can be planted directly in the soil or started six to eight weeks before last frost. They will bloom from early summer until first frost.

Word or caution: While the Marigold has beautiful blossoms, they don't smell like flowers. If you consider a garden's fragrance as part of its charm, don't plant too many Marigolds. They are not a sweet smelling flower. I love their color but I limit the number I plant each year.

The Marigold doesn't smell like a flower.

The Morning Glory is a climbing vine. Its trumpet shaped flowers open in the morning and close by mid-afternoon. The vines are lightweight and will easily climb a trellis or arbor. A trellis covered with Morning Glories make an excellent backdrop for a garden that backs up to a building. Word of caution: The Morning Glory will reseed itself. Given the opportunity, it will take over the entire garden.

My mother always planted rows of Nasturtium in her vegetable garden. She claimed that they helped keep the bugs away. I don't know if it's true or not, but I have continued the tradition. The Nasturtium blossom is beautiful. It is a hardy plant that comes in both bush and climbing varieties. They thrive in poor soil and bloom throughout the summer.

Want a rainbow in your garden? Easy. Just plant petunias. They come in nearly every color imaginable. Some varieties have large blooms while others are dainty. It is a vigorous grower and tolerant of the heat as well as the cold. They are turned into carpets in the garden and are found spilling over the sides of hanging baskets and planters. It's a delicate looking flower but as hardy as they come. The Petunia is one of my favorites and always will be.

Pansies are known as a cool weather flower. Here in South Carolina pansies are planted as early as January or February. Unfortunately they are not very heat tolerant. I plant my pansies in February but replace them with other annuals by the end of May.

Pansies come in a variety of colors, but my favorites are the bicolored pansies. They fill out a flowerbed beautifully, and spill out of flower pots all over my patio.

As a child I was in 4-H and one of my yearly projects was a flower garden. I wanted the pretty perennials like my mother had but had to settle for whatever flower seeds were left over. My garden was made up of mostly Zinnias, Marigolds and Four O'clocks. The Marigolds were always orange and the Four O'Clocks were red. It was the Zinnias that with its dazzling colors that turned my humble little plot into a showpiece.

Zinnias are easy to grow and cutting blooms for bouquets just encourages more blooms. There are tiny Thumbelinas and giant blooms bigger than my husband's hand. I can't imagine a flower garden without Zinnias.