5 Easy Annual Flowers

by Doug
(In his Garden)

I want to enlarge on the notion of organic gardening and making a no-work garden this week. We’ve already looked at the basics of compost and perennials so let’s take a quick look at annuals you’re going to consider.

Impatiens

Leading the list has to be impatiens. Yes, I know that everybody grows them and yes, I know they’re everywhere but they are used because they’re so good.

They bloom all summer, don’t need pruning, don’t need deadheading and are bothered by very few insects that are going to knock back their blooming.

The only problems you’ll have are drying them out or not feeding them properly so the blooms are sporadic.

If you’re looking to have some colours that the neighbours don’t have, start your own seed around the middle of February. This will give you something different from the standard red and white so commonly sold in garden shops.

Understand that double impatiens don’t give you nearly the colour show of the singles and avoid these for garden beds. They do well in containers or as houseplants but are a waste of time if you’re looking for the biggest show for the least buck.

Similarly, New Guinea Impatiens are amazing plants but do not let them dry out! Those crinkly burned edges are stress - mostly water-related. Or too much sunshine and dry soils will do the same thing. My own garden experience is I have way more success with these if I give them part shade than if I grow them in the full sun (contrary to most advice at nurseries)

Don’t plant impatiens until the ground is warm (towards the end of May). I know that most of you want to plant them earlier and if you do, simply understand that they’ll just sit and sulk if the ground is cold and only start growing once the ground starts to warm up.

This is the number one plant for shade and you can even plant them out in more sunlight if you water them adequately and try to protect them from the blazing sun between 10 am and 2 pm. Plant slightly closer together than the tag suggests if you want them taller.

Petunia

The counterpart of this plant for full hot sunshine (and not shade) is the petunia. But not your basic petunia, we’re talking about the advanced breeding plants such as the Waves and other heavily flowering plants that don’t require deadheading.

Stay a long way from the old Floribunda-types with their huge blossoms that require deadheading every day to keep the plant growing and flowering well. The new floriferous plants might cost a bit more per plant but because they grow several feet across, they wind up costing you the same amount of money to cover the same amount of ground.

The one thing that most gardeners don’t know about these plants is that they’re greedy feeders and you’re going to have to feed them with a liquid plant food ever week or two if you want to see a lot of blooms.

If you’ve ever not been happy because the petunia didn’t grow well enough, I can almost guarantee that you didn’t feed it enough.

Full sun, good feeding, good drainage and the modern work-free hybrids and you can have a no-work annual bed of colour that will blow away passers-by.

Seed Generated Geraniums

Now another plant I’ve long recommended for no-work gardening is the seed-generated geranium. These plants have single blossoms and not the big double flowers of the vegetatively produced (from cuttings) varieties.

The big doubles are wonderful in hanging baskets and containers where you see them up close but they have to be pruned and deadheaded regularly or they get really ugly and fungus-flowered quickly.

The seed geraniums on the other hand aren’t as good looking up close but because they outbloom the vegetative plants by a good margin and because the flower petals fall off rather than rotting, these are wonderful in the sunny garden where you need a splash of colour.

Spend a few minutes once a week taking off the spent flower stalks and enjoy summer-long colour from a distance. The other advantage to this plant is that it is usually at least half the cost of a fancier double bloom.

Coleus

Another plant for sun or shade is the coleus. The leaves on this plant are getting bigger and splashier and can give you season-long colour with absolutely no work.

The trick here is to make sure you get sunshine-varieties for the sun and shade varieties for shadier spots in the garden. And don’t mix them up!

Coleus varieties that will stand hot sunshine do not produce the ugly flower spikes and have leaves that will handle the sunshine without burning and fading. These keep on growing and looking good without pruning all summer-long.

Varieties best suited for the shade will be wonderful and hold their leaf colouring there (but fade in the sun and produce flowers immediately). You really want to use both in the garden bed and in containers throughout the garden. This is a no-work plant; give it enough water and a fertile soil and you’re going to get a great background or contrast plant all summer long.

Tall Cleome and Nicotiana

For tall or mid-sized summer blooms consider either cleome or nicotiana. I’m not sure I’ve ever pruned either of these plants.

Both come in different colours and heights and are well worth a place in your garden. I’m going to be picking up some of the old-fashioned, fragrant Nicotiana sylvestris this spring and sowing this 1m (3-feet) tall plant throughout the garden.

The dwarf varieties don’t have fragrance but they do sport a huge colour selection and equally no-work garden performance in the full sun to part shade.

Cleome isn’t fragrant but is quite showy and is equally a no-work plant. You’re going to find it in different colours and heights for your mid to back of the garden areas. I saw some lovely new eye-shocking colours this past summer in garden trial gardens.

Those plants should help you with your objective of a no-work garden. They have a prominent place in my garden planning but that’s not because I’m a lazy gardener. It’s only because I need to show you how to have a garden without having to work at it. Leading by example as it were.