Annual plants are the easiest way to bring that long-lasting, eye-popping color to your landscapes and containers! Each spring, their cheery blooms fill our Greenhouse with every hue, and here, we share some of the annual blooms we’re most excited about this year.
SunPatiens®
The garden world let out a collective cheer when these jewels arrived on the scene a few years ago. SunPatiens® have all the brilliant, reliable color of the classic bedding impatiens but in a sun-loving package you can plop almost anywhere – from annual beds to planters to hanging baskets. And they don’t stop either! SunPatiens® keep churning out lots of reliable color all summer long.
Light: sun to part sun // Water: consistent // Great for: mid-height bloom in containers, hanging baskets, or annual borders and beds
Lantana
Lantana is another overachiever who doesn’t know the word ‘quit.’ The abundant spherical clusters of tiny blooms come in an astonishing array of colors – from sunshine yellow to soft lavender to fiery red – plus a few combinations in there too. Depending on the cultivar, lantana can be a flower-covered mound or take the more spreading, trailing route, so be sure to check the tag and find the form you want for your beds, containers, or hanging baskets.
Light: full sun // Water: tolerates some dryness // Great for: mid-height or trailing blooms in containers, hanging baskets, or annual borders and beds
Dorotheanthus ‘Mezoo’
If you want something different to trail in the sun, check out Dorotheanthus ‘Mezoo.’ A long-time favorite of our Container Design team, ‘Mezoo’ has the same lime green color that sweet potato vine has but with a plumper, variegated leaf that gives the plant an unexpected succulent texture. Then, add in those contrasting raspberry, anemone-like blooms, and you’re hooked.
Light: full sun // Water: tolerates dryness // Great for: a spreading trailer in containers, hanging baskets, or groundcover in annual beds
Crossandra
With bright coral-orange spikes of papery blooms above glossy, deep emerald-green foliage, crossandra is one of those annuals whose glow draws you in from across the Greenhouse. And it blooms for a long time, so that enticing color won’t disappear soon after you get home. The butterflies love it too, and when the season is done, crossandra is one of the few annual bloomers that can make the transition to houseplant life – just make sure it has a sunny place to live inside.
Light: full sun to part sun // Water: consistent // Great for: mid-height foliage and blooms in containers; a focal point for a small table planter; a houseplant in the winter
Coleus
Some foliage plants can be just as colorful as flowers, and coleus is the number one example. It seems like no matter what color you need to fill in the middle of a container design or to create a no-fuss drift of color through your annual bed, there’s a coleus to fit your vision. Red, orange, lime-green, dark purple, or yellow. Solid or variegated. Big and bodacious or small and trailing. Coleus offers it all. Coleus does flower too – in a slender upright spire with small, lavender blooms. But if you want the foliage to stay compact and full, it’s best to regularly pinch coleus back a bit before that ever happens.
Light: full sun to part sun // Water: consistent // Great for: mid-height color for large container designs, a centerpiece for smaller containers, or color for annual borders and beds
Torenia
Trailing plants that bloom in the shade aren’t so common, but torenia marches in and fills that role beautifully. Its abundant snapdragon-like blooms look like a chorus of little opera singers tumbling over the side of your containers and baskets, and they come in several color choices from almost blue to deep purple, yellow, or white. Torenia kind of creeps along low, so it looks best when peeking out from under a fuller supporting character like coleus, impatiens, or begonia.
Light: part shade to shade // Water: consistent // Great for: a trailing edge in containers or filling hanging baskets
Pentas
Around mid-July when some annual bloomers are starting to feel the heat, pentas is just coming into its prime. All season long, abundant clusters of starry, five-pointed blooms appear in rich jewel tones like red, raspberry, purple, and pink over mounds of deep green foliage. And pollinators love pentas, so get ready for visits from the local butterflies and bumble bees too.
Light: full sun // Water: consistent // Great for: mid-height foliage and blooms in large container designs, a centerpiece in small ones, or color for annual borders and beds
Begonia
In the world of annual flowers, begonias are your best friend – that one you can always count on to show up, bring the joy, and never let you down. So begonia is a popular choice in Midwest gardens, but with so many different kinds to choose from, universal does not mean boring. Each type of begonia brings its own personality, texture, and talent to your outdoor space. For beds and borders, neat, mounded rows of blooming wax begonia thrive in sun, part-sun, and shade. For sunny hanging baskets, the full and arching dragonwing begonia is a stunner. And for shady containers where it can be challenging to create interest, Rex begonia comes in with some amazing foliage patterns and textures.
Light: full sun to shade, depending on variety // Water: tolerates some dryness // Great for, depending on variety: mid-height bloom and foliage in large containers, a centerpiece in small containers, annual borders and beds, or hanging baskets
Evolvulus
Despite its popularity, the color blue is a rarity in the world of flowers. But evolvulus is an exception. Its morning-glory-like blooms are the sweetest shade of true blue and appear along creeping stems covered in fuzzy, blue-green foliage. Evolvulus loves the heat, tolerates a little dryness, and its rich supply of nectar attracts butterflies too. But those blue eyes tend to close up early in the afternoon, so be sure to catch that pretty blue in the morning if you can.
Light: full sun // Water: tolerates some dryness // Great for: trailing blooms for containers and hanging baskets or groundcover for annual borders and beds
Fill Your Space with Color!
May is almost here, and soon it’ll be time to fill our landscape beds, hanging baskets, and outdoor planters with tons of blooms! Come visit the Greenhouse for your annual flower fix and take home a summer’s worth of color for your outdoors spaces.
