Annual plants Madison WI

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Amazing annuals

You may already know what annuals are without realizing that you know! These beauties are the flowers, arrayed in flats and pots, for sale every spring down at the garden center — everything from geraniums to impatiens to marigolds. You bring them home and plunk ’em in the ground, and they get right to work, delivering pretty much continuous color all summer long. When fall comes, they start to slow down (some may even go to seed); cold weather eventually causes them to wither and die. Game over. (That is, unless you live in a frost-free climate; in this case, your “annuals” become perennials. See the upcoming section titled “Perennial plants” for more information.)

For the brief time annuals are growing and pumping out flowers, you get a lot of bang for your buck. A great deal of selection and breeding refinements over the years have made these plants totally reliable. They’re hard to kill. Indeed, some of them keep blooming their cheery heads off even when you neglect them. More sophisticated gardeners have been known to sneer at good old annuals. They’re boring. They’re too perky. They’re “plastic plants.” These folks may or may not have a point, but hey, annuals are hard to beat if you want a colorful garden.

In the end, the main drawback of annuals is economic. You have to buy new ones every spring. If you’re planting a wide area, running out to buy more year in and year out can get expensive. Time may also be an issue for you — you may grow sick and tired of getting down on your hands and knees and replanting.

You can use annuals

To fill an entire flowerbed (this popular use is why some places call annuals bedding plants)

In container displays — in pots, window-boxes, patio planter boxes, and more

To fill a hanging basket

To edge a walkway

To “spot” color in a perennial bed

In edging and as decoration for a vegetable or herb garden

To cover over or at least distract from a fading spring bulb display

Caring for and feeding annuals

Luckily, taking proper care of annuals is not rocket science. For the most part, annuals are easygoing, because they’re bred to be quite tough and durable. Many can withstand some neglect and still be productive — not that I recommend ignoring them!

Without a doubt, water is an annual’s number one need. All that lusty growth and continuous flowering requires fuel. A thirsty plant can’t sustain the show for long. Regular, deep soakings are best because they reliably supply water to the roots, which leads to a stress-free life of consistent growth and bud and bloom production. (Note that a drying-out plant favors its roots and, to a lesser extent, its leaves, in a bid for survival, automatically jettisoning its water-hogging buds and petals.) You can’t deny that regular doses of plant food significantly boost your annuals (make sure you apply it according to directions). The leaves become healthier and greener, and you end up with more buds and flowers.

The rather unromantic term of deadheading simply refers to the practice of pinching or cutting off spent flowers. Your annuals look nicer when you do this, of course, but removing the flowers also serves another purpose: It thwarts the plant from the energy-intensive process of producing seeds, and the plant responds by diverting its energy back into making more flowers.

Favorite annuals

If you shop earlier in spring (before the garden center has been picked clean, I mean) or go to a place with a big selection, you see lots of choices. If you find certain types too boring or common, look around for alternatives — one big trend these days is familiar annuals in new colors, even bi-colors. Get creative! Have some fun! Here are some popular annuals:

Sun-lovers: Angelonia, California poppy, cleome, cosmos, geranium, lobelia, marigold, million bells, nasturtium, nicotiana, petunia, portulaca, salvia, and zinnia

Shade-lovers: Ageratum, cineraria, coleus, forget-me-not, impatiens, nemophila, pansy, primrose, sweet William, vinca, wax begonia

Unusual, offbeat, but still easy annuals:

1) Collinsia: An easily grown and graceful plant that looks similar to a blue snapdragon

2) Eustoma: A plant with very long lasting, silk-like flowers

3) Feverfew: An annual covered with double, mostly white chrysanthemum-like flowers

4) Annual foxglove: A plant with charming, nodding flowers on a tall spike, adding a dramatic vertical element to any garden

5) Honesty (money plant): An annual grown for its translucent quarter-shaped seed pods that make it choice for dried arrangements

6) Larkspur: A plant that’s easy to grow by directly sowing the seeds in your garden in the early spring

7) Nemophila: A plant with sky-blue cup flowers on compact mounded plants

8) Nierembergia: A ground-hugging plant covered with purple cup-shaped flowers

9) Stock: An annual with heavenly fragrance and flowers from white to pink to purple

10) Torenia: A flower that looks like an open-faced snapdragon on compact plants, in shades of blue, pink and white.

Raising annuals from seed

Of course you can raise annuals from seed! Some are simpler to grow than others. Annuals with very small seeds like snapdragons and begonias are a bit more of a challenge because you need to start them indoors in a bright windowsill or under fluorescent lights.

Just buy the seed packets in late winter and sow them in flats or pots (particular directions are always on the back of the packets). Raise the seedlings indoors until spring weather comes and the soil warms up and all danger of frost is past; then move the plants outside.

Some annuals are so fast-growing that you can sprinkle their seeds on good soil in late spring, right outside, and they’ll quickly sprout and grow. This group includes popular ones like zinnias, marigolds, and nasturtiums. This process may require you to do some thinning at some point, but otherwise, it’s dead easy. Again, consult the back of the seed packet for details. One advantage to this tack is that you can grow some more unconventional or rare annuals. It certainly makes for a more interesting garden!

Beholding a one-time show

The very definition of an annual — a plant that goes from seed to flowering to death in one season, completing its entire life cycle in short order — states that annuals are a one-time show. When it’s over, it’s over. (Except when it’s not; if you garden in a mild climate, many annuals merely slow down for the winter but survive.)

If you garden in a cold climate, you can try digging up some favorites or bringing potted annuals inside. Keep them in a nonfreezing place, out of direct sunlight, and let them rest. Cut back all spent growth. Start reviving them with water and plant food when spring returns.

However, if despite your best efforts, your wintered-over annuals don’t return to their former glory the following spring, accept their fate, pull them out, and replace them with new ones.

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