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Annual flowers allow flower beds to be reshaped every year, again and again to create new flower beds that change the appearance of the entire site. If you need to wait a couple of years for perennial flowering, then annual garden flowers bloom all summer. Seeds of annual flowers can be collected by yourself and sown the next year. Annual flowers for a summer residence are not so much trouble compared to the pleasure that can be experienced all summer long looking at them.
How to choose plants
Annuals can be an addition to perennial or non-flowering ornamental plants, or you can make a flower bed only from them. The main thing is to think carefully about what types of flowers you will need, then draw up a flower garden scheme, decide where undersized ones will grow, where tall or curly annuals will grow, and only after that pick up the seeds of annual flowers. If there is no desire to mess with seeds, you can immediately buy seedlings, you can even buy flowering annual flowers, immediately place them in the garden. Some flowers, such as calendula, are sown by themselves, and the next year they grow beautifully from seeds.
Of course, they need care, fertilizer and watering, but unlike perennials, they do not have to be treated, saved from pests, or sheltered for the winter. All summer they will bloom, in the fall they will give seeds, and their greens will become fertilizer for the garden. Some zealous owners sow them as green manure – they decorate the cottage, then fertilize the soil. This happens with the same calendula if it settles in the garden.
It is undesirable to buy seeds or seedlings of any flowering species of flowers, knowing only the names about them. Lit is better to draw up a flowerbed scheme in advance, arranging the plants by color, growth. To choose the right flowers for the flower bed, you need to know the timing of flowering. As a rule, all annuals are long-flowering, but some bloom in early summer, while others closer to autumn, some stop blooming in August, while others, like calendula, continue until frost. Knowing the timing of flowering, you can make a flower bed in such a way that it will delight you with colorful flowers all season – the plants will bloom in turn.
The selection of plants depends on the location of the flower garden. For flowerbeds in the middle of the yard, undersized (very often it is viola) and medium ones are suitable, and high or curly plants are planted near fences or walls, often shade-loving. Climbing flowers can help disguise an unsightly structure or an old fence, they can create beautiful gazebos or light shade over a bench. Color selection is important. Colorful flower beds in a rustic style look beautiful. Flower beds that are formed from flowers of different types, but of the same color: white, pink, yellow, orange, look more decorative.
Video “Reproduction and planting of one-year-olds”
Demonstrative video with examples and algorithm of actions.
What flower beds to do
Making a flower bed of perennials, we still have to supplement it with annuals to fill the voids. But you can take care and build a flower garden only from annual plants. Of these, modular options, discounts, mixborders, color spots, single landings (or group ones) are usually made.
It is very convenient to plant flowers in flowerpots or containers – they can be placed along the paths, by the pool or pond, on the balcony or doorstep. In this case, it is very easy to change the flower arrangement – you do not need to dig out and replant, but simply move it from place to place. Flowers growing in this way require less attention, care for them is easier than for those growing in the garden. Petunia, fuchsia, viola, lobelia, nasturtium – beautiful cascades are made from these flowers, using several planters along with floor flowerpots, it looks very decorative. They decorate balconies and windows.
Creative owners plant flowers not only in special flowerpots, but use broken dishes, old shoes (viola looks touching), bedside tables, even cars. Somewhere you can put a pot, and some capacity is simply filled with soil, annual flowers are planted. Such unusual flower beds look very decorative, they can be moved from place to place, decorating it situationally. You can’t plant a shady corner of the garden with flowers (although there are shade-tolerant, even shade-loving ones), but you can simply bring such modular flower beds for a few hours. This option is good for landscaping a balcony. For modular flower beds decorating balconies, verandas, thresholds, different varieties of petunias and violas are perfect.
The word “rabatka” designers call a colorful border, most often having the correct geometric shape. They are one-sided (high plants are provided in the background of the scheme, and closer to the viewer they decrease to undersized violas), two-sided (tall plants are planted in the center, and medium plants are planted on both sides, followed by undersized ones). Round rabatki are created according to the same principle. Often use calendula, blooming until frost.
Mixborder is by far the most popular type of flower garden. It consists of different types of plants that bloom at different times, thereby creating the effect of continuous flowering. White, yellow, red, orange, blue, purple flowers can grow side by side and replace each other over time. Here it is very important to choose plants not only in terms of flowering and care, but in combinations of color and size. Very often they use yellow or orange calendula, terry asters, viola, matiola – they like to decorate balconies and cottages.
Color spots are created from annuals of the same color. A group of yellow marigolds or yellow marigolds in the middle of a green lawn looks very decorative. Often bright salvia or zinnia are planted this way. Shade-tolerant violas can hide in the shade of the garden in a small spot in the middle of the grass. A single plant is called a tapeworm, it always becomes the center of the composition. Such plantings are created against the background of a lawn or undersized ground cover plants. Castor beans and datura look very decorative.
Group plantings are beneficial in that the plants can take turns riveting their gaze, the flowering becomes invisible to the environment of other flowering plants. Here, too, terry asters, salvias of different colors (they are grown as annual and biennial flowers), yellow or orange marigolds or marigolds, deciduous and coniferous bushes are often used. You can arrange more complex compositions. First, the flower garden is thought out in terms of mood, color and shape, a diagram is drawn up, then plants are selected according to it. It is better to make a diagram on paper in order to refer to it, already directly organizing a flower bed. It is important not to place light-loving and shade-loving plants nearby.
Overview of annuals
Annuals are:
- undersized;
- medium height;
- tall;
To undersized, including flowers, the height of which does not exceed 30 cm. Sometimes they act as ground covers when they are planted to fill the space between tall flowers or clipped shrubs. The most unpretentious, and therefore common, are white airy iberis, blue nemophila with an amazing smell, unforgettable dwarf viola. Ageratum, growing, forms incredible pillows of different colors. Yellow and yellow-brown terry marigolds glow with lights from early summer until late autumn. Viola and calendula can act as a border or background.
Tiny daisies and dwarf snapdragon varieties in a variety of colors can make an undersized border along paths. They require little to no care, just a little watering and fertilizing to replenish their strength for flowering. They often decorate balconies. Among the undersized varieties of silver cellosia, phlox, ragwort, lobelia, forget-me-nots, there are shade-tolerant specimens, but most need a lot of light.
Medium-sized flowers up to 80 cm high are used for mixed flower beds. The highlight of the site can be balls of vervain flowers, a bizarre antirrinum, scarlet poppy and lilac salvia. Ease of care and external beauty made yellow esholzia, cosmea, fragrant matiola popular. The seeds of these plants germinate well in the garden, seedlings are used only if they want earlier flowering. They are not capricious, shade-tolerant, a little fertilizer and watering, timely weeding is all they need.
Tall annuals reach 1,5 m in height, they are good in single and group planting. Mixborders are complemented with annual dahlias, amaranth, cochia, ornamental corn and fragrant tobacco. Snow-white panicles of aruncus and datura bells look exotic. Delphinium, castor bean, mallow – very effective in solitary performance. These flowers grow quickly, many are shade tolerant, some of them often need support, it is worth considering support when planting. They need water and fertilizer to grow.
Planting and care
They say that annual plants require care. But if we recall the self-seeding asters and calendula, then this can be argued. Sowing for seedlings is usually done in March, after 2 weeks most of the seeds germinate. Flower seedlings require the same care as vegetable seedlings: they need watering, fertilizing, warmth and light. Therefore, boxes with sprouts need to be watered in time, placed on a lighted window, turned in different directions to the light source. After the growth of two leaves, the plants dive into separate cups, preferably with fertilizer. The easiest way to care for seedlings is to carry out in a greenhouse or greenhouse.
May is the best time to plant flowers in a flower bed. Before that, the place for them already needs to be prepared – arrange drainage, fertilize, prepare the soil. Caring for flowers in a flower bed is common – they are watered, the soil is loosened, in some cases they are mulched, it looks very decorative and protects plants from weeds and moisture evaporation. Flowers need periodic top dressing with fertilizers for lush and long flowering. Fading flower stalks, wilted buds need to be removed in time, in many species this stimulates further flowering. For several months of the warm period of the year, annual deciduous and flowering plants go through the entire vegetation cycle. They can be grown in a flower bed and balcony, most importantly, do not forget about watering and fertilizing.
Video “Rules for planting one-year-olds”
Informative video with recommendations for gardeners who want to make a flower bed of one-year-olds.
