Annual Flowers
By Rene Graeber
Flowers are one of natures heralds of the seasons. The various that bloom in the different seasons can inform us what season we are in. For instance like the Poinsettia are known to bloom only during the winter season, more specifically during December. Annual on the other hand are wonderful to plant in your gardens.

You will find that many of these are excellent choices for the garden as they can be grown in the different seasons. The best way to select the type of annual that you want is to decide which flower varieties you want to see. You should buy the annual that are appropriate for the required season

otherwise your flower plant will rot even before you have a chance to plant it.

When you start selecting your annual you can buy hardy annuals, half hardy annuals and tender annuals. These differences reflect the type of weather and soil conditions that these annual will grow in.

Hardy annuals are beautiful plants that will produce even in the cold winter season. These annual are planted during the spring season or fall season when the weather is not that cold. Unlike other annuals these hardy annual do not like hot weather as they are not heat tolerant.

The types of hardy annual that you can buy include calendula, foxglove, viola, sweet alyssum, stocks, cornflowers, pansy, larkspur and the many varieties of dianthus cultivars. The half hardy annual include torenia, snow-on-the-mountain, blue sage, strawflower, babys breath, candytuft, bells of Ireland, celoma, love-in-a-mist, and forget-me-nots.

These half hardy annuals do not mind damp cold weather but they cannot live during the cold harsh months of winter. You will need to plant these annual after the last spring frost. Unlike tender annuals these half hardy annuals have no need of warm soil conditions for the seeds to begin sprouting.

While some flower species cannot tolerate lots of hot summer weather the half hardy annuals may sometimes droop for the weather but they will perk up in the later summer months. You can choose some tender annuals like scarlet sage, morning glory, petunias, begonias, celosia, balsam, nasturtium, and verbena.

These annuals as their name suggests are not comfortable in the cold winter months so the ideal time to grow them is three weeks after the last spring frost. Since these annual grow well in warm climates you can expect to see them in all of their glory in the late spring and the warm months of summer.

These are just a few of the many annual that you can grow in your garden, and the riot of colors that they bring will absolutely make any garden look great. You will also have the added benefit of that grow in different seasons adding a burst of color right through the year.