Deciding where to plant annuals

By and large, annuals are resilient plants that tolerate a wide range of growing conditions. But some have preferences for more or less sun, and these specialists allow you to dress up such areas for maximum impact.

Planting in the sun
Full-on, warm sunshine inspires many annuals to grow robustly and generate loads of flowers. You can always tell if a sun-loving annual isn’t getting enough light, because its stems become leggy and lean toward the light source, and flower production is disappointing. So let them have it! How much is enough? Six to eight hours a day suits most. My favorite annuals for sun include cosmos, nasturtiums, zinnias, marigolds, and cornflower.

Planting in the shade
Banish gloom in your yard’s dim and tree-shaded areas with shade-loving annuals. Plenty do just fine in shade. Indeed, their flowers last longer without the stress of the sun beating down on them. White and yellow flowers really add sparkle, individually or massed. My favorite annuals for shade include tuberous and fibrous begonias, impatiens, and torenia. If your shade areas have poor soil or are laced with tree and shrub roots, don’t despair. Instead, just display the plants in pots, setting them here and there or in clusters. Or dig holes in the ground and stick the plants — pots and all — in the hole. Doing so makes changing them out easy, too. (A clever idea: Hook hanging baskets over tree branches and fill them with shadetolerant annuals.)

Planting annuals later in the season

Of course you can plant later in the season! Plant and replant all summer long if you want and into fall if you garden in a mild climate. As long as the plants are willing and able to grow and produce flowers, why not? Because blazing hot weather is stressful, avoid planting during such spells or at least coddle the newcomers with plentiful water and some sheltering shade until they get established. A dose of all-purpose fertilizer (applied according to the instructions and rates on the container) may also hasten latecomers along.

Planting in late spring

The majority of annuals are frost-sensitive. In other words, a freeze can damage or kill them. Frigid temperatures also make annuals much more susceptible to disease damage. If these small plants are damaged by cold, they may never quite recover. Don’t risk it: Plant your new annuals in the ground only after all danger of frost is past. The same goes for plants you’re putting in containers (though you can bring the pots indoors on chilly nights if you have to).

Gardening fever hits us all on the first warm spring day. But warm air isn’t necessarily what you’re waiting for — warm soil is. If the ground is still semifrozen or soggy from thawing cycles or drenching spring rains, it’s better to wait another week or two. No, you don’t have to take the soil’s temperature before proceeding. Just remember the wise advice of garden author Roger Swain: Don’t put plants in a bed you yourself wouldn’t be willing to lie on!

Filling in the garden after the last frost

If you live in an area with a long growing season, you can go ahead and sow annual seeds straight into the ground, secure in the knowledge that they’ll sprout, grow up, and start pumping out flowers, all in plenty of time. This approach is generally easy and cheap. Gardeners with shorter summers can either start seeds inside or buy seedlings.
Freezing weather kills or at least severely damages most annuals. Therefore, the trick is to know your last spring frost date and your first fall frost date —these dates bookend the annual-gardening year. (If you don’t know, ask an employee at a local garden center, a more experienced gardener, or someone at the nearest office of the Cooperative Extension service. Note that the dates are averages; they can vary somewhat from one year to the next.)

Starting with nursery, well, starts

You generally see nursery starts at the garden center or home store in mid-to late spring. Small annual plants are generally sold in six-packs or larger, with each cell holding a single young plant. These plants were raised from seed or from cuttings in a greenhouse and need a little TLC (shelter from cold and wind, regular water so they don’t dry out) when you get them home.
Here’s what to check before buying:

• Labels: Labels should contain useful information, such as flower color and mature plant size, as well as the name of the plant.
• Blooms: A blooming plant may be more attractive, and it lets you check that the color is what you want, but the flowers take energy away from the roots. When you get the plant home, cut or pick off any flowers or buds.
• Well-rooted plants: Pop or wiggle a plant out and check the rooting. If the seedling promptly falls out of the soil mix, it hasn’t been in the cell or pot long enough. If you see a mass of white roots, the plant has been in the cell too long and is stressed.
• Healthy appearance: Is the foliage crisp and green? Just a few yellowing and bedraggled leaves aren’t necessarily a problem — you can pinch those off. But you should look in the crown and the nodes (where the leaves or leaf stalks meet the main stem) for insect pests or signs of them.

How to start with annuals seed packets?

The almighty seed is the symbol of a new beginning. Buying your annuals as seed packets gives you four important advantages:

• You can get an earlier start. Starting seeds indoors takes time and space, but it’s not at all difficult — and it’s a great way to chase away the winter blues.
• Thanks to a broader selection in the seed-packet world, you can grow unusual annuals or new and different colors of popular ones. Look in seed catalogs that come in late winter, or browse the company Web sites. You have all sorts of wonderful choices!
• Quantity! Any given seed packet can contain 100 or more seeds. Even with some attrition, using seed packets is a great way to grow a whole lot of plants.
• It’s inexpensive. Sure, experienced gardeners bemoan the rising cost of seeds over the years, but, really, it’s still the best deal in town, always substantially cheaper than buying young plants.

Be sure to shop early for best selection, and always check the packet to make sure the seeds are fresh. (The packets should be stamped with an expiration date of later this year or next year or should say “packed for [current year] Store the packets in a cool, dry place so the seeds aren’t tempted to germinate until you’re ready to sow them in flats.

Combining annuals colors

As a painter or interior decorator may say, with justifiable envy, “Wow, what a palette!” Annuals come in literally every color of the rainbow, and the only limit is your imagination. If you want to be absolutely sure of a splashy display, you can use the following principles.
However, sometimes rules are made to be broken, or sometimes a combination idea happens accidentally or just occurs to you. Not only are annuals reliable, but they’re also forgiving. So feel free to try anything, removing or shifting plants around as you fine-tune. Yes, you can move an annual from one place to another without much trauma (just get all or most of the root system when you do, and water the plant in well in its new home until it adjusts).
Throwing a bunch of flowers together in a flowerbed or container can look like a lively bouquet, or it can look like a hodgepodge. So try to decide on a mood or focus and stick to it. Here are some useful color principles you can try:

• Go for the bold: Mix annuals in bright primary shades of red, yellow, and blue. Ideally, they’re of the same color intensity so one doesn’t steal the spotlight. Yellow zinnias with blue calibrachoa is a stunning combo.
• Hot, hot, hot! Compose an exciting, traffic-stopping display out of any or all of the following: hot pink, bright orange, ruby red, magenta, and bright purple. Try some bright orange marigolds combined with purple petunias.

• Soft and sweet: If you like romantic, soothing pastels, go for colors of similar strength or intensity; combine pale yellow, lavender, pink, baby blue, and cream rather than white. A tranquil pairing is lemon-colored osteospermum with powder blue verbenas.
• Aim for contrast: Colors considered opposites (complementary colors) —such as orange and blue, yellow and purple, and red and green — look terrific together. Orange nasturtiums topped with blue salvias is a good choice.
• Use neutral hues: These colors go with everything and thus make nice, calming filler in a display that may otherwise look busy or cluttered; try cream, beige, silver, or gray (supplied by foliage if not flowers). An occasional white-flowered annual is also welcome in color-filled layouts. Silver leafed foliage plants like the dusty millers can be nicely combined with any white-flowered plants like angelonias or petunias.