Growing & Enjoying Annual Flowers

Nothing links us more to nature than meandering through a well-tended garden carpeted with flowers that are a feast for the eyes. Annual flowers provide a rich display for most of the summer and into the early autumn and many of them are also suitable for cutting and displaying indoors.

Annuals, in their numberless colors and shades, arrive at maturity, bloom, produce seed, and die in one season. Many hardy annuals such as candytuft, phlox drummondii, and the beautifully scented sweet alyssum, and sweet peas etc., can be sown in August and September for spring flowering, and require little or no protection from frost. The seed of hardy annual garden flowers can also be sown thinly outdoors during March, April, or May in fine soil, covering them slightly as very small seeds need just a light covering of seed compost over them. Planting small seeds too deeply will result in many of them being lost. When the plants are large enough to handle, they need to be thinned out to let them to develop fully. In this way strong and sturdy plants are produced and their flowering properties enhanced.

The more tender half-hardy annuals are best sown in seed trays 2 or 3 in. deep during February and March, and placed in a greenhouse at a temperature of about 60 degrees. The seed tray should be nearly filled with equal parts of potting compost and coarse silver sand, thoroughly mixed, and have holes at the bottom of the tray for drainage. The seeds need only be sown thinly and evenly over the soil and covered very lightly.

Very small seeds, such as lobelia and musk, shouldn't be covered by compost but a sheet of glass over the seed tray will help them, as it keeps the moisture in the compost from evaporating too quickly. If watering becomes necessary, care must be taken so that the seeds are not washed out just as they are developing their tender roots.

As soon as the young plants appear, remove the glass and place them near the light, where gentle ventilation can be given to them to prevent long and straggly growth of their stems. They should then be hardened off gradually, but not planted out until the weather is favourable i.e. the frosts have passed. Seed can also be sown in a cold frame in April, or in the open border during May; or the plants can be raised in the windows of a sitting-room or conservatory.

Very tender annuals need to be sown in a rather stronger heat than is necessary for half-hardy varieties. As soon as they are large enough to be moved, they can be prick them off into small pots, gradually potting them on into larger sizes until the flowering size is reached.

It's useful to know in advance of doing any transplanting, that most annual flowers need plenty of room in which to grow. Most will take kindly to transplanting into their final flowering spots.  Exceptions include those that have taproots like mignonette, larkspurs and poppies. These will not respond well to having their roots disturbed.

Annuals provide us with a wonderful assortment of brilliant flowers: asters, the larkspur, and the profusely blooming petunias which are ideal for summer hanging baskets, plus portulaccas, and zinnias to name but a few. And because they can be grown in almost any type of soil provided it's well-drained, and need only a reasonably sunny spot to flourish, they are justifiably the most widely grown of all flowers.