Annual Plants

You can get some good bargains. Young plants in six or eight packs of the same variety are often sold at a very low price. The seedlings should be well rooted but not need be in bloom. Beware of starved and dried-up left overs once planting season is over. Climbing annuals will disguise a chain-link fence or screening around garbage cans. Morning glory, scarlet runner beans, black eyed susan vine, sweet peas, and hyacinth bean are some good climbers. For shady gardens Impatiens,fiberous begonias, coleus, wishbone flower, and monkey flower are good shade- tolerant plants. Use bushy or trailing annuals for pots and window boxes. Marigolds, heliotrope, petunias, verbenas, thunbergia, and lobelia are idea. But avoid tall plants like sunflowers, which look awkward in small containers. A sunny location with good drainage is more important to most annuals than soil quality. Plant them in the empty spaces between shrubs, foundation plants, perennials, or rows of vegetables. To give half-hardy annuals a head start plant them indoors. Place chicken wire over your seeding tray, put a seed in each hole so that they will grow evenly. This will make it easier to separate the seedlings for transplanting. Dress up your garden with annuals, while you wait for perennials to take hold. Since they germinate, bloom, and die within a single season, there is no need to dig them up once the perennials are established. Massing a single color will create a elegant, unified effect suitable for terraces, planters and window boxes. Pastels such as whites, lavenders, pinks, yellows show best in early morning and evening light. Plenty of moisture is essential for young plants. First soak them in a tub of water, plant them only after the root ball is thoroughly wet. Also soak the planting hole with a good watering. Annuals DO NOT like manure. Too much nitrogen results in plants with too many leaves, too many stems and few flowers. The only manure suitable for use on annuals is one that has been dried for at least 2 years. Pinching young plants helps them become stockier and bushier, but will delay blooming. Annuals such as sweet pea, godetia, coleus, clarkia, snapdragon, petunia, red salvia, and nicotana benefit from pinching. To do this use your thumb and forefinger to nip out the growing tip of the main stem just above a leaf or a pair of leaves. To dead head use shears or scissors to remove dead flowers from annuals that bloom in flushes, like petunias, California poppies, marigolds, and coreopsis. Put annuals into pots at the end of summer. Species such as coleus, impatiens, browailia, geranium, wishbone flower will provide attractive blooms in your home for several months.