Annual flowers are a great option if you want to keep your garden fresh and fresh all year long! These flowers bloom quickly and usually remain in full bloom for the growing season.
For some areas, the growing season can be as short as four months. For more tropical and warm areas, the growing season can last almost a year. This should not be confused with the seasons we commonly know as summer, autumn, winter and spring.
We have selected a few of our favorite annual flowers for each season.
Something More For Annual Flowers
Annual plants germinate, grow, flower, set seed and die all in one growing season. The first frost usually signals the end of the season for annuals and most need to be replanted each year. Some will set seed if the flowers are left to produce seed heads and return the following year.
Annuals can be further divided into cool-season annuals and warm-season annuals. Although they may live for the entire growing season, they may not flower the whole time. For example, pansies will fade as the summer heats up. Zinnias won’t even start flowering until the nights stay warm.
Why You Should Grow Annual Plants
Annual flowers tend to bloom nonstop, especially if you deadhead the plants. Growing annuals will help keep your garden in bloom all season. They are popular choices for containers and hanging baskets because they remain attractive all season.
Annual flowers also allow you to have a different garden every year. Perennial plants come back each year and remain a constant in your garden. If you want to try a new color scheme or simply experiment with new plants, annuals allow you to do that without making a long-term commitment. They also tend to be much less expensive than perennial plants.
Here’s our list of 8 Best Annual Flowers for Your Garden.
Vinca
Annual vinca flowers are also known as Madagascar periwinkle. Vinca is known for its non-stop blooming throughout the summer and its popular blue color.
Useful in borders, flowerbeds, rock gardens and containers, the vinca flower provides instant color wherever it grows. The round, flat blooms appear on top of 12- to 15-inch stems.
These drought-tolerant bedding plants thrive in any soil type as long as it is fast draining and not overly fertile.
Hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9b through 11, vincas thrive in full sun and require temperatures no colder than 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Impatiens
Impatiens are one of the most popular annual flowers, due to their brightly color blooms and their ability to grow in shady areas. The most commonly grown cultivars are short plants, attaining a height of not more than 1 foot. Some types, such as the ‘Super Elfin’ series, stay much shorter. Impatiens flowers come in a variety of colors, including white, red, pink, violet, coral, purple, and (a relative newcomer) yellow.
Grow impatiens flowers in well-drained soil enriched with hummus. Because they require a good amount of water, the soil must drain well. The soil should also be moist and deeply shaded.
In hardiness zones 10 and 11, impatiens can be planted in the fall for winter and spring color. In shaded landscapes in zones 9 through 11, the plants can reseed themselves, maintaining year-round flowers in shaded areas.
Cornflower
Cornflowers are extremely colorful hardy annuals. They look great in beds and borders, especially when part of an annual bedding display or a cottage garden, flowering from late spring and summer into autumn.
Cornflowers are also commonly known as ‘bachelor’s buttons’ – and more than a dozen other common names. They make excellent cut flowers and attract bees and butterflies and other pollinating and beneficial insects.
Although blue is the most common colour; white, red, pink and purple varieties are also available.
Cornflowers grow and flower best in sunny positions. They need a fertile soil enriched with lots of organic matter, which holds plenty of moisture in spring and summer, doesn’t dry out or become waterlogged.
Petunia
Petunias come in a variety of shades including pinks, blues and reds. These hardy annuals are easy to care for and are the preferred choice for novice gardeners.
Petunias have wide trumpet-shaped flowers and branching foliage that is hairy and somewhat sticky. Within the petunia family, there is a great variety: single and double blooms, ruffled or smooth petals, striped, veined or solid colors, mounding and cascading habits and even some with fragrance.
Petunias are one of the most popular flowers. They are tender perennials in Zones 9 to 11.
Most of the petunias sold today are hybrids, developed for specific design purposes.
They grow easily when you transplant them to the garden, and this should be done in the spring when the threat of frost has passed.
Most petunia varieties prefer full sun, but in the heat of summer, the partial shade will keep them refreshed and blooming better.
Petunias require a light, fertile soil that provides good drainage. They like a slightly acidic soil pH.
Calendula
Bright yellow and orange flowers, historically used for medicinal and culinary purposes, come from easy calendula care when growing this simple flower.
Commonly called the pot marigold (Calendula officinalis), the calendula flower has long been a staple in British cottage gardens.
Petals are used in cooking and were used as a yellow coloring in cheeses and butter in centuries past. When used in stews, broths, and salads, these petals add a spicy taste similar to saffron to many dishes.
This edible flower is a popular choice for soups and salads. Calendulas can also be made into essential oils to help heal and hydrate skin.
While uses of calendula plants are diverse, growing calendula in the flower or herb garden is optimum use of this attractive plant. Calendula plants are frost tolerant and somewhat cold hardy and add long-lasting color and beauty in a flower bed or container.
Primrose
Primrose flowers (Primula polyantha) bloom in early spring, offering a variety of form, size, and color. They are suitable for use in garden beds and borders as well as in containers or for naturalizing areas of the lawn. In fact, when given the proper growing conditions, these vigorous plants will multiply each year, adding stunning colors to the landscape.
The primrose houseplant (Primula) is often found for sale in the late winter or early spring. The cheery flowers on primroses can do quite a bit to chase away winter’s dreariness, but they also leave many owners asking how to grow primrose indoors. Primrose indoor care is important if you would like these lovely plants to survive.
Snapdragon
Bright snapdragon flowers bloom profusely throughout cool weather in intensely saturated colors (almost every hue) and are real standouts in either the spring or fall garden. The flowers start blooming at the bottom of the stalk and work their way up, making for a long period of bloom. Although snapdragons tend to stop blooming in heat of mid-summer, if you keep them watered, they will perk up and carry your garden through the fall.
Your snapdragons will bloom most profusely in full sun to partial shade in the spring. Once the temperature heats up, they may stop blooming altogether. Planting them in partial shade and keeping them well watered will help them make it through the summer and likely bloom again in fall. However, they are quick to get established and it can be just as easy to replace your snapdragon plants each season.
Snapdragons like a neutral soil pH between 6.2 and 7.0. As short-lived plants, they are not heavy feeders, but adding organic matter will help keep them healthy and blooming.
Pansy
Pansies are the colorful flowers with “faces.” A cool-weather favorite, pansies are great for both spring and fall gardens! Here’s how to plant pansies as well as keep them growing and blooming.
Pansies have heart-shaped, overlapping petals and one of the widest ranges of bright, pretty colors and patterns.
Good for containers, borders, and as ground cover, they are a go-to flower for reliable color almost year-round. Pansies look pretty on their own in a monochrome scheme or in mixed colors; they also look pretty when planted with other cool-season flowers such as violas, primroses, trailing lobelia, and sweet alyssum.
Breeding has produced pansies that are better able to stand up to the cold, but there hasn’t been much luck producing more heat-tolerant varieties. Many pansies are bicolored, making them striking plants for their small size. Although delicate, they are surprisingly hardy. And like their cousins the violas and violets, the flowers are edible.
Pansies will bloom best in full sun to partial shade, but they will stay fresh looking and keep blooming longer if grown in partial shade.