Annuals have the leading roles of the flower world and are the stars of dramatic landscapes. With annuals you get instant wow!
Annuals are planted every year and provide color summer till frost. Many annuals can be wintered over indoor reseed outdoors providing extra value to their flower power.
Weather greatly effects when crops are ready for sale. These are general arrival times. Please call us at 5050 SE Stark: 503.231.5050 or 9000 SE Division: 503.788.9000 for availability.
February: Early spring annuals such as Ranunculus, Anenome, Sweet Peas and Primroses.
Early March: Spring annuals start
Geraniums, Snapdragons
March: Annuals such as six-pack Alyssum, Lobelia, Snapdragons, tender Fuchsias, starters for hanging baskets and Zonal Geraniums begin to arrive.
April: Impatiens, sunpatiens, tuberous begonias, coleus, fuchsia baskets.
May through June: Peak selection! Sunflowers, Hanging baskets, tender succulents, sweet potato vine, Abutilion, Colocasia.
July and August: Larger sizes, unusual annuals and tropicals.
August through fall: Mums, ornamental peppers and cabbage.
Winter: Pansies, primroses, dusty miller and florist Cyclamen.
With the cold weather starting, it is time to make sure your geraniums, fuchsias and other tender plants are tucked away for winter. Remember it is always a good idea to spray plants you bring indoors with insecticidal soap (organic) to kill any pests hiding. Tender plants can be stored in three ways, as a house plant, tucked into a sheltered area out doors (porch, cozy corner or under evergreen shrubs and trees), or in the basement or garage (for dormant plants).
Instead of planting flowers every spring, you can let some of your annuals go to seed each fall by allowing the flower heads to dry and droop. The wind and birds will scatter ripe seeds. Self-sown seedlings will come up in the fall or early spring, when and where they are best suited to grow. Then, you can thin these annual flower seedlings to allow survival of the fittest and to sculpt the lines of color in your garden.
Good seed setters include sweet peas, sunflowers, calendula, borage, nasturtiums and annual delphiniums. Common garden and Flanders poppies, clarkia, alyssum and even petunias will come back year after year, depending on winter’s severity.
Hybrids will not come back "true to type" the following year because they do not produce uniform offspring. For most people, that isn’t really a problem. It just means instead of having a pure stand of all white alyssum, you may end up with some splashes of purple. Herbs and greens such as lettuce are also willing self-sowers. Dill and cilantro may come back every year from seed heads left to overwinter.
A colorful addition to the dinner table, edible flowers are an excellent way to introduce children to gardening. This list is by no means exhaustive. However, this list pertains only to the flowers and no other parts of the plants.
In personal gardens, bedding plants can be tucked into empty spaces to create a swath of color and may also be the very thing you need to fill out a great combination.
We've created pages for our favorite annuals for both sun and shade. We hope you'll like these for your garden too!
See our favorite annuals for shade
See our favorite annuals for sun
Container, basket & window box combinations for shade annuals.
Part of the pleasure of gardening is being able to look at, smell, and enjoy the results of your labor. When you cannot be in the garden, bring the garden to you with cut flowers!
Build sun and shade containers with a few quick tips! Whether you like to do it yourself, need something quick or would like a custom professional design, we have you covered. Just use our plant lists and tips. In three easy steps, you'll create perfect sun or shade containers and dramatic combinations in the garden.
Print out our helpful lists of shade and sun plants for "Thriller, Spiller, Fillers":
Annuals are planted every year and provide color summer till frost. Many annuals can be wintered over indoors or reseed outdoors providing extra value to their flower power!
