Annuals or Perennials that's the question
Hans Dekkker
Do I Need Annual or Perennial Plants?
The crocus delights us in early spring as it dares to peek through the snow and lift its face to the sun. Soon after follow tulips, narcissus, iris, lilacs… all perennials that welcome spring with vibrant color and fragrance. Perennial plants bloom at different times during the growing season and delight you with variety in color and size from earliest spring to late autumn. However, many perennials like those mentioned, bloom only for a few short weeks and then disappear from the landscape until the following year.
Annual plants provide a garden with continuous bloom and color throughout the summer. The “mission” of an annual is to produce seed. Seeds sprout, foliage grows, flowers bloom and then the plant goes to seed. When the annual completes its mission, the entire plant— flower, foliage, and root system —dies.
Some annuals have a very short life span and depending upon when they are planted, may reseed and go through two or more growing cycles per season. Other annual plants grow continuously from spring planting until the first frost of autumn.
Since annual plants die completely at season end, they need to be replaced yearly. Depending on the cultivar, annual seeds can be planted directly into a garden or sprouted indoors for transplanting when weather conditions and soil temperatures are right for growth.
Annual transplants are also available each spring at gardening centers and many are sold in inexpensive flats that contain four or more plants. Annual plants can often be closely grouped to fill in barren areas of your landscape whereas perennials often need space to multiply and/or to grow to maturity.
Although some perennial plants are more expensive to purchase than annuals, in the long run you may find them less expensive since they last for longer than a single growing season. You can also purchase groups of assorted perennial bulbs in very inexpensive packs.
Perennial foliage and flowers also die at the end of a growing season, but contrary to annuals, the root systems of perennial plants live over winter and resprout with new growth each spring.
Another advantage of perennial plants is that although flowers and foliage die back, the branches of perennial shrubs offer some visual appeal to a winter landscape.
Perennial plants may take more than one season to reach full maturity. Because perennials propagate from root structures, many types of perennials also need to be divided after three or four seasons to reduce crowding and maintain their vigor.
Although all perennial plants are able to resprout for multiple seasons, perennials are divided into to categories of hardy perennials or tender perennials according to the temperature zone in which they are grown.
Hardy perennials are those that can be left in the ground to return the following season. Except for occasional division and/or pruning, hardy perennial plants need little care once established.
Bulbs like tulips and daffodils are among the easiest plants to grow and excellent choices for a beginning gardener. Tender perennials need your help to survive the winter. Some can over winter when covered with a layer of mulch or otherwise protected from the elements with gardening appurtenances such as rose cones. Some tender perennials need to be lifted and stored indoors over winter.
So the question remains, do you need annual plants or perennials? Each type of plant is ripe with “pros” and short on “cons” if you love flowers. The best solution is to experiment by planting some of each to get a summer full of color, variety, and pure gardening enjoyment!
About the author:
Hans is leading author of Gardening Guides.com Your place for information on gardening topics and free e-books
The latest information and news on Gardening:
Yahoo! News Search Results for gardening
Jeff Ball: Ergonomic hand tools are tops when gardening (Detroit News)
It occurred to me this past week, as we were putting our gardens to bed for the winter, that in the past year Nancy and I, unintentionally, set aside virtually all of the hand tools we had in the shed for the relatively new line of gardening tools put out by the Radius Co.
O'Neil: Castle tour in Scotland unearths common gardening bond (Times Herald)
Foulis Castle, in the Highlands of northern Scotland, gave me insight into Scotland's clan history and life today.
Sound Gardening: Put the garden to bed (Greenwich Time)
Time to end the gardening season: The leaves are finally down, so you can decide which ones should stay in your garden, which get mulched to turn into compost, and which -- already composted -- get put back on those beds and borders.
Gardening: Be proactive: Protect your trees this winter (The Star Press)
Do you have young trees planted in your yard or at your business? If so, beware of sunscalding or frost cracking injuries that can affect the health and aesthetics of the trunk of your tree.
Tropicalia: Edison & Ford Estates to host garden market (The News-Press)
If you've tried gardening in Southwest Florida after a lifetime of Northern training, you've probably learned that things are a little - well, a lot...
Spring blossoms for the holidays, thanks to a little gardening magic (New Orl...
For home gardeners, some techniques are well within reach
With These Activities, Gardening Need Not Take a Holiday (Washington Post)
Here are some upcoming holiday and horticultural events for November, December and January. They're free unless otherwise noted. Call ahead to see whether registration is needed.
Garden Notebook Nov. 15 (Journal Inquirer)
For a technophobe like me, it has been astonishing to discover how much I have come to rely on the Internet as a source of gardening information.
What's on Monday's WAVY News 10 Midday (WAVY 10)
-Gardening expert Dabney Morgan will live in our studios to take your questions about winterizing your yard. The phone lines open up at 12:30, and the number is 673-5420.
New varieties for food growers (Bangor Daily News)
According to All-America Selections, an organization devoted to promoting new flower and vegetable varieties with superior garden performance, there is a trend in gardening toward edibles. People are interested in growing their own food.