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“Man does not live by bread alone …”, which means that, in addition to practical benefits, and sometimes even help in survival, the personal plot from time immemorial served to rest the soul and body, to delight the eye. This task is best handled by ornamental plants and flowers. Since they carry not only a purely aesthetic pleasure of frozen beauty, but also a living energy that changes every moment and is able to deliver many minutes of joy and pleasure to those who know how to discern and appreciate it.
Among decorative flowers, annuals are especially popular with gardeners. Indeed, many of them, due to their unpretentiousness and the ability to bloom non-stop (unlike most perennials) for several months in a row, are able to decorate your garden with bright splashes of all colors of the rainbow from June until the onset of frosty weather.
True, most of the annuals require growing in late winter and early spring indoors in the form of seedlings. But for many, this process becomes so exciting that every year they want to grow as many different varieties of annuals as possible.
In addition, some flowers are easy to grow by direct seeding in the ground in April – May, depending on the weather conditions in your area.
The use of annuals
Annuals develop and bloom, and, therefore, serve as a decoration for your site for only one season. On the one hand, this seems to be a disadvantage, because they cannot be forgotten, like some perennials, and every spring they must be sown and planted again. But, on the other hand, what kind of boundless scope for creativity does this give.
After all, you can experiment with planting flowers indefinitely, every season, changing their location and coming up with new original ideas for their placement. The most traditional places where you can place annuals are:
- flowerbeds;
- flower beds;
- borders;
- Hanging baskets and planters;
- Landings along the paths.
But, besides this, annuals can be used almost anywhere, for example:
- In the garden, to decorate the beds and protect vegetables from uninvited guests from the world of insects.
- Near nets and transparent fences to create a wall invisible to prying eyes for the summer period.
- Near walls, fences, compost heaps, garbage heaps and other places that are unsightly to the eye, flowers will mask their unsettled appearance.
- As a curtain from the sun, if you let them curl on a horizontal surface, located at a certain height from the ground.
- To decorate the concrete part of the yard, annuals can be planted in various original containers: jars, pots, tanks, baths, car tires, old shoes, and even in a broken washing machine or refrigerator.
- Annuals can decorate old stumps by cutting holes in them, as well as planting them with a carpet in the shade of young or with a sparse crown of trees.
Classification of annuals
In the sea of diversity of species and varieties of flowers of annuals, it is not always easy to navigate even for an experienced gardener. And beginners usually get lost and buy and grow plants, seeds that came to hand in the store and seemed attractive in the picture. Such an approach may, at best, not bring the desired decorative effect, and in the worst case, annuals may disappoint with poor or late flowering, or even not rise at all and the abyss. Therefore, you should first figure out which flowers are best suited for the conditions of your site, and for your specific purposes.
Height
So, annuals, first of all, differ in the height of the bushes. Exist:
- Carpet or undersized flowers (up to 20-25 cm);
- Plants of medium size (from 30 to 65 cm);
- Tall annuals (from 70-80 to 200 cm).
Among the undersized annuals that bloom all summer, the most popular and unpretentious are alissum, viola (pansies), iberis, echium, bicorn mattiola, ever-flowering begonia, lobelia, verbena, phlox drummond, mesembryantemum, dimorphoteka, gazania, nemesia, purslane and others.
The vast majority of unpretentious annuals belong to the second group of flowers, such as: calendula, cornflower, clarkia, godetia, balsam, kosmeya, coreopsis, nigella, arctotis, salvia, zinnia, cellosia, statice, escholcia and many others.
There are not so many flowers in the third group, but they impress with their appearance: amaranth, mallow, lavatera, sunflower, tobacco, malopa, foxglove.
It should be noted that many of the most popular flowers, such as snapdragons, annual asters, marigolds, annual dahlias, carnations, have many varieties that are very diverse in size. From the most dwarf varieties, no more than 20-30 cm, to flowers of medium height and, finally, giants more than 80-100 cm in height.
According to the duration and timing of flowering
It is important to distinguish between annuals in terms of timing and duration of flowering. The vast majority of annual flowers differ in the duration of flowering (more than three months), but some bloom for only a month and a half. But, they are easily renewed by sowing seeds.
The record holder for the duration of flowering is viola (pansies), which is able to bloom from early spring to late autumn, and when favorable conditions are created, year-round.
At the other end of the line is malcolmia, which blooms for only a few weeks, but its seeds can be scattered literally anywhere and after 50 days pretty flowers will appear in this place.
You must be aware that most of the so-called biennials (daisy, forget-me-not, lacfiol, bluebell, moonflower) also bloom only for a month or two. But on the other hand, when they are sown in the second half of summer, most of them bloom already at the end of April – in May, that is, during the period when none of the annuals bloom yet.
Among the long-flowering annuals that bloom already in June, the following species can be noted: alissum, godetia, cornflower, golden flower or keeled chrysanthemum, escholzia, echium, tar, nasturtium.
Almost all other common annuals bloom from July until frost.
According to the length of the growing season
Since annuals are propagated mainly by seeds, it is important for gardeners to distinguish between three groups of flowers according to the duration of the development period from sowing seeds to the appearance of the first flowers. Since, depending on the duration of development, the timing of sowing seeds is determined.
Late flowers develop from 130 to 180 days, and require sowing for seedlings in January-February. These are carnation Shabo, ever-flowering begonia, verbena, lobelia, petunia and others.
Medium flowers, develop from 90 to 120 days. Seeds of these flowers can be sown from early March to mid-April. Among these annuals, the following flowers stand out: annual aster, levkoy, snapdragon, ageratum, zinnia, tobacco, sweet pea, godetia, Drummond’s phlox, marigolds, chrysanthemum and others.
Early flowers develop from 40 to 70 days. These annuals can be sown directly into the ground in late April or May. These include: alissum, calendula, kosmeya, clarkia, lavatera, malcolmia, bicorn mattiola, gypsophila, escholcia, nigella, limnantes, nemophila and others.
By type of use
It is also very important to distinguish between annuals by type of use, because it depends on exactly where one or another flower can or cannot be planted.
On this basis, all unpretentious long-flowering annuals can be divided into six groups.
beautiful blooming
This group of annuals is probably the most numerous, since it is for the design of various flower beds and mixborders that many annuals are intended. It should be noted separately a subgroup of the most beautiful flowers, which are most often specially grown for cutting, because their flowers have the ability to persist for a long time in bouquets placed in water.
Such beautifully flowering annuals include:
- Agrostemma or cockle
- Арктотис
- Astra one-year
- Golden flower or chrysanthemum keeled
- Cosmey
- Dahlias annual
- Clove Shabo
- Godice
- Gaillardia
- Rudbeckia annual
- Venidium
- Zinnia
decorative leafy
It is interesting that some plants can serve as a real decoration of the site, not only due to their beautiful flowers, but also due to their painted leaves, bizarre shapes or dimensions. Some of them are typical annuals:
- Decorative cabbage
- Kohia
Others, by their nature, belong to perennials, but because of their love of warmth, they are grown in temperate gardens as annuals.
- Irezin
- palmcrist
- Coleus
- Perilla
- Cineraria or seaside ragwort
Dried flowers
This category includes annuals, which can be used not only to decorate the site, but also for winter bouquets and floral arrangements.
These include:
- Akroklinum
- Helichrysum
- Statica or Kermek or Limonium
- Gypsophila
- Lunnaria
- Nigella damask
- Xeranthemum or dried flower
- Scabious
- Mylucella
Climbing plants
Among annuals, there are not many climbing flowers, but nevertheless, the choice of plants is large enough to be used for vertical gardening in a wide variety of conditions.
These include:
- Sweet pea
- Bindweed or morning glory
- Nasturtium
- Kobeia
- Pumpkin decorative
- Thunbergia
Carpet annuals
These undersized flowers are able to form carpets in different parts of the garden. Some require dry sunny places with poor, well-drained soil. Many of them are able to grow even on sand or stones: alissum, ankhuz, dimorphotheca, escholcia, gazania, iberis, malcolmia, limnantes, mesembryanthemum, purslane.
Others prefer more richly fertilized soils and can grow even in partial shade. These include ever flowering begonia, balsam, lobelia, nemophila.
potted flowers
This group includes flowering perennials, which are quite easily preserved at home during the winter period. And with the onset of heat, these flowers are often planted in containers, balcony boxes or planters to decorate the site during the summer months.
This group includes:
- Balsams of different types
- Begonia ever flowering and root
- Coleus
- Geraniums or pelargoniums
- Calceolaria
- Schizanthus
Conclusion
The variety of annuals or flowers used for summer plantings is so great that everyone is quite able to choose according to their taste and color, suitable for specific purposes and plant conditions. Perhaps after reading this article you will be able to avoid many of the mistakes that are inevitable in the absence of experience.
