Flower Power

Flowers really do intoxicate me.

~Vita Sackville-West

Thirty-four days until spring, a good time to plan ahead for the summer garden! Annuals are plants that complete their life cycle within one year and include many of the garden’s most useful flowers. They offer wide-ranging colors and forms, blooms for scent and cutting and they attract beneficial pollinators to the garden. Annuals are primarily sun-loving plants but there are a few varieties content to grow in shade. Most require only average well-drained soil enriched with a bit of organic compost to thrive from mid-summer into fall.

Though it’s easy enough buy packs of annuals at a local store, with just a bit of effort you can grow your own from seed. Annuals can be sown in late spring directly into the soil where they are to grow and thinned for adequate growing space and air circulation. (See packet for suggested distance between plants.) Light dressings of organic fertilizer once a month throughout summer and early fall coupled with dead-heading of spent blossoms will encourage plant growth and promote budding.

Annuals to consider for:

Edgings:

• Alyssum
• Dwarf snapdragons
• Petite marigolds
• Dusty Miller
• Dianthus
• Candytuft
• Creeping phlox
• Nasturtium
• Verbena

For containers and window boxes: (including all of the above)

• Amethyst flower (bush violet)
• Petunia
• Portulaca
• Clock vine
• Periwinkle
• Celosia
• Impatiens

Annuals for cutting:

• Amaranth
• Calendula
• Aster
• Mums
• Cosmo
• Larkspur
• Sunflower
• Sweet pea
• Nicotiana
• Nigella
• Phlox
• Stock
• Bells of Ireland

There are countless other varieties of annual flowers. With spring approaching seeds are widely available at stores and garden centers.Why not choose a few to grow this season with your vegetables and perennials and give your garden some flower power!