One of my favorite parts of spring is walking in to a nursery and seeing all the flowers just begging to be taken home and transplanted into my garden. Some of the most prolific bloomers, the ones that will bloom all summer long are annuals. An annual is a plant that has its entire life cycle in one season from seed to flower to sending up a seed pod. A perennial on the other hand continues its life cycle for years to come and will bloom year after year.
Sun-Loving Annuals
Sun-Loving annuals tend to do well with 6-8 hours of sunlight, and in some areas like in Zone 9, they can handle upwards to 10-12 hours of basking in the sunlight. If you water them well, feed them a good organic fertilizer, and deadhead annuals regularly, you can keep them blooming for months and months through the spring and summer.
A few of my favorite sun-loving annuals include petunias, violets, vincas, sweet alyssum, lobelia, snapdragons, verbena, and zinnias. Ok, that might be more than just a few! What I love about annuals is that if I want to plant a specific color scheme one year I can do that easily by picking my favorite annuals in that hue. If you don’t love it, you can move them easily as their root systems don’t become as large and developed as perennials do.
Petunias are amazing sun-loving annuals. They not only come in solid colors but some beautiful bicolored shades as well. There are small and large flowers and the super variety called Wave Petunias that bloom and bloom, and then bloom some more. Petunias can get a bit leggy and need to be deadheaded regularly, but other than that these are by far my favorite annuals to plant!
The one flower that can withstand crazy high heat is vincas. They come in white, pink, and purple and have small star shaped flowers and they take on the heat like a champ. If you are in an area where it gets over 95 degrees, plant vincas as they need water but can withstand a little bit of a drought. They too need to be deadheaded often and need additional nutrients monthly.
Two of the best focal flowers in an annual garden are snapdragons and zinnias. Snapdragons have blooms that range from 6-20” long and come in every color of the rainbow. Best to plant them at the back of your flower bed as they get nice and tall and you will want your shorter flowers up front so they don’t get lost. Zinnias are beautiful flowers that are on tall stems with large glossy green leaves. You can cut these flowers and put them in a vase inside to enjoy.
At the end of their lifecycle, annuals with send up send pods. If you don’t want the seeds to spread in your garden make sure you clip those off and save for next year. If you want them to come back, let the seed pods open up naturally on the flower. Annuals make a wonderful addition to your garden bringing color that attracts butterflies and hummingbirds all summer long.
More Flower Growing Tips
- How to Grow Hollyhocks
- How to Grow Russian Sage
- Growing Butterfly Bushes
- 5 Ways to Care for Spring Bulbs
- How to Grow Chrysanthemums
- How to Transplant Easter Lilies
- DIY Rose Bush Food Recipe
- How to Create A Square Foot Cutting Garden
Kristi Trimmer is currently running half marathons across the U.S. and blogging about her journey. Follow her journey on DragonflyRunning.com as she shares her running adventures and helps to motivate others to make positive life changes that include eating healthy and having fitness be a part of the lives and not a dirty little word.
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