Caring For Your Annuals
Annuals, such as Marigolds and Petunias, are well-loved for their long blooming season, easy culture, and many uses. There are many ways to use annuals in the garden. Some gardeners fill summertime color gaps in perennial plantings with generous splashes of annuals. Annuals also can make a fine cover over a springtime bulb garden, for they are generally shallow-rooted and will hide the bulb foliage as it fades. Other gardeners prefer to use annuals alone in colorful masses.
Each year, the newest geranium, petunia, and impatiens cultivars tie for the number one position in the bedding plant industry. Seed packets of these popular plants are available in stores, online, and mail-order catalogs across the country. Many of the most common and reliable annuals are also offered as bedding plants.
Bedding plants are an easy and inexpensive way to add instant color to the garden. All you need to do to create an “instant” garden is take your garden plan to the garden center and select your plants. Many gardeners like to raise their annuals from seed. Growing plants from seed is the most thrifty way to produce annuals. It also provides an opportunity to try many new or unusual cultivars that are not otherwise available, since seed catalogs offer many more selections than the average bedding plant display.
Some annuals, like marigolds and zinnias, are so easy to start from seed that they can be planted directly in the garden. Others, including geraniums and impatiens, need to be sown indoors well before the last frost.
If you’ve grown annuals from seed, be sure to harden the plants off before moving them to the garden. This is also a good idea for greenhouse-grown bedding plants, which haven’t been
exposed to the rigors of life in the outdoors. You can move them to a cold frame a week or so before they are scheduled to go into the garden; build a simple hoop shelter out of wire and
polyethylene; or move them to a sheltered spot outdoors for longer and longer periods each day.
Most gardeners transplant seedlings or bedding plants just after the last average date of frost in their area. If you put them out earlier, be prepared to cover your tender plants with burlap, newspaper, or some other protective layer if frost threatens. Listen to the weather reports during those changeable spring days. Very tender annuals such as impatiens won’t really begin to grow until soil temperatures warm.
Annuals need minimal maintenance. One of the best ways to reduce the amount of work they require is to find annuals that are adapted to the conditions that prevail in your garden. Plants that are naturally inclined to grow in dry, sandy soil, for example, will be healthier and require less care than those that aren’t.
There are annuals suited to every climate and every type of garden. There are several ways to identify the best ones for your garden: Talk to other gardeners, visit gardens and note which plants are thriving, and look for lists in pamphlets, magazines, or other publications that recommend plants for similar conditions. Try growing some new annuals each year and keep notes about their performance.
In a well-prepared bed with enriched soil, most annuals seldom need any additional fertilizer. However, some, like petunias, respond well when cut back in midsummer and given a boost of a balanced fertilizer. Mulch helps keep moisture in the soil, and it also cuts down on weeding.
Most annuals will need to be pinched at least once early in the season to encourage branching and compact growth. To pinch a plant, use your fingernails or a small pair of shears to pinch the bud, or the bud and youngest set of leaves, off the tip of each stem.
Deadheading, which means removing spent flowers as they fade, prevents the plants from going to seed. This keeps the garden more attractive and encourages the annuals to produce more flowers. It also is a way to keep annuals that will reseed prolifically in check. Only let a plant set seed if you want to save the seed.
In weeks when there is less than an inch of rain, you will probably need to water the garden more frequently. Using drip irrigation may be a feasible way to reduce water use.
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