annuals

What’s So Great About Annual Flowers?

February 26, 2013 by Ilona Erwin

A Temporary Transplant

My first gardens were all about two kinds of plantings: vegetables and annuals. For one thing, I rented the home, and as a renter, a person is not very motivated to sink time, money, and effort into planting perennials and shrubs.

So probably the first thing I did during this period was to plant bulbs. Not annuals in the strict sense, but carefree color when I most needed it: after long, cold winters.

Tulips and crocus bulbs were the main choices, and then every spring I would get some flower seeds and plant the bulb areas with brightly flowering annuals. Zinnias, candytuft, alyssum, marigolds – even cosmos. It was sort of a wildflower look- wild, anyway!

Further into the growing season I would carve out a veggie patch, putting in tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and whatever else I felt would be yummy; parsley was favored for under the tomatoes.

conatiner plants — The year I tried Salpiglossis. So lovely!

Self Seeding Annuals and the Logical Progression

Through the years certain annuals remained, doggedly perhaps, sprouting up in the sometimes disturbed earth of certain parts of my borders.

The Nigella, Love-In-A-Mist, hordes of Shirley poppies filled June, the specie form of Calendulas, long reverted to their old origins, but no less cheerful and sweet for all that.Then I moved into my own first home…. and I discovered perennials.

Then, Finally, Perennials

Perennials were my long love affair with plants and gardening, but I never forgot annuals. I only put them back in the scullery, so to speak, as perennials grew and multiplied (with a little help from their friend, me!).

Certain annuals have loved it here- I have dill weed in bunches every year. It is a good thing.

Because I have nowhere near the garden opportunity that I did years ago: grandchildren must be visited, vacations to make up for years of not having any, the necessity of portioning out more of my energy to just keep up this place and try to declutter (my main goal for this time of my life!).

But I find I am also returning to my first love for annuals. Why would I do that? Their fresh and pretty morning faces may have something to do with that.

Heavenly Blue morning glories — It will soon be time to plant morning glories

8 Good Reasons To Plant Annual Flowers

summer flower containers — Past Container Pottings

Annuals are easy
They provide long lasting color and a source of cut flowers
Annuals are worry free, not having near the problems with diseases, etc.
They fill in spots where things look bare, and do it quickly
I can seed or plant pots of nursery grown seedlings
Many are fragrant
They can be old fashioned favorites or new to me and exciting to try out- without too much expense
They fill the containers that I now use for most of my summer long color. So what if the border got weedy, or certain perennials died out in a drought or whatever? I have my pots of bright and cheery annuals to keep me happy until I can remedy those problems

So, you see? In my older years I am reverting to things I once found joy in, and annual flowers are a part of that rediscovery.
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© 2013 written for Ilona’s Garden Journal by Ilona E. An excellent blog.

10 Cool Season Annual Flowers To Plant

February 18, 2013 by Ilona Erwin

Shirley poppies and Bachelor Buttons

Not every garden writer alerts you to the fact that annuals can have seasons that are shorter than other choices. For places like Ohio which have hot summers, there are common annuals that only do well when our weather is cooler, such as in early summer. Those flowers sort of burn out in our hot summer temperatures of midseason, in July and August.

Does this mean we shouldn’t plant them? Not at all. I love the cool season annuals because of their beauty, but also because they pop up early. Such plants can be ideal in a child’s garden, where quick results are wanted. To fill in where perennials are slow to cover space might be another good use for them.

English Meadow Denizens

Many of these types of annuals grow native in the English meadows.

Filled with colorful blooms of Bachelor button, Allysum, and Calendula — Filled with colorful blooms of Bachelor button, Alyssum, and Calendula

Here is the list of ten cool season annuals to try in your garden this year:

Candytuft, Iberis umbellata, quick and easy- but oh so pretty. Large flat shaped seeds burst into purple, mauve, pink, and white Candytuft blossoms.
Shirley poppies, Papaver rhoeas, are delicate, full blown poppies and come in a rainbow of colors. They sway in the breezes and will make your garden veritably shine with a mass of blooms.
Love In A Mist, Nigella damascena, creates the sky blue gardeners love when they are selected for that color, such as in the ‘Miss Jekyll Blue’ variety.
Sweet Peas, Lathyrus odoratus, are fragrant and come in not just a candy store display of colors, but special bloom forms, too. The old fashioned selections are the most fragrant, and try to plant the seeds around St. Patrick’s Day.
Pot marigolds, Calendula officinalis, are not just gorgeous in spring, but one of the last to be still standing and blooming in the fall. They can put chrysanthemums to shame in both color and long-lasting bloom. You can eat them if you wish, too.
Toadflax, Linaria marrocana, is one of my favorite little flowers and great for a Fairy Garden. They come in both mixed colors and selected varieties. Like small versions of snapdragons.
Nemesia, is a small scale flowering annual that comes in all sorts of colors and looks pretty with linaria and is one of my favorites for a container planting. Like many of the cool season plants it needs to be kept moist.
Chinese Forget-Me-Nots, Cynoglossum amabile, are easy to grow and bring cheerful forget-me-not type flowers and that sought after blue into the garden. It was very persistent for me for years, coming back reliably from seed. Also called “Hound’s tongue”.
Annual Baby’s Breath, Gypsophilia elegans, will give the pure white, delicate flowers that grace a cut flower arrangements and lace the borders with pretty sprays of baby’s breath flowers. They are much shorter than the perennial plants of that name. ‘Covent Garden’ is the variety I always planted.
Satin Flower, Godetia, doesn’t seem to be very well known nowadays. Its showy pink flowers deserve to be more widely known. Just barely cover the seeds that are directly sown into the garden. Another good cut flower choice.

I just wrote a new plant profile page on Calendulas

The main drawback for those of us who garden in the continental Midwestern states is that fact that these lovely blooms “burnout”, and do not thrive in our hot summers. But if a garden is located in the South, the cool season annuals can be great choices for sowing in November for early blooms the following year.

Wherever you garden, consider direct sowing some of these lovelies in your garden.

More about gardening with annuals Ilona’s Garden Annuals Page | California Annuals list
photo credits: poppy and bachelor buttons, calendulas
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Visit Ilona’s Garden Journal on facebook: Click here
© 2013 written for Ilona’s Garden Journal by Ilona E. An excellent blog.

Shirley Poppies, Papaver rhoeas

June 11, 2009 by Ilona Erwin

These are flowers to illustrate fairy tales, and so easy that a child can grow them successfully.

In fact, once you plant them, they may just grow on their own happily ever after.

They are one of my favorite reseeding annuals.

How These Poppies Look

The petals of the Shirley poppy are described as tissue paper or tissue silk, and for such a sturdy plant everything about them seems impossibly delicate. From the fairy-winged flowers to the wire thin stems rising from a basal nest of mid-green hairy leaves, they flutter and wave in the wind.

Sometimes the petals sparkle with raindrops clinging to their translucent surface.

Nothing is prettier than a horde of these poppies gathered in spaces throughout the garden arrayed in their best gowns of sparkling, luscious colors for a dance in June.

They are somewhat ephemeral, though. Liking cooler temperatures, they tend to melt during the hottest part of the summer. But that isn’t surprising for something that seems so delicate in appearance.

Shirley poppies have a wide variety of colors in their hybridized selections. My favorites are the pastels, with lavenders, pale rose, white, and pinks, often picotéed around the edge of the petals with rose red or in soft bicolors.

The Shirley poppy color selections can range in color from cool whites, pinks, rose, and lavenders to cheerful yellow, orange, and scarlet, and can be doubles.

A Few Interesting Facts

Originally the Shirley poppy, Papaver rhoeas, was found in corn fields of Europe, the one made famous in Flanders and worn on Memorial Day.

In Flanders Fields….
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
~Written by John McCrae~

Shirley poppies are perfect additions to a Cottage Garden. They can be used as cut flowers if you singe the cut stem with a flame to seal it.

Growing Poppies From Seed

To plant Shirley poppies, simply sow lightly and thinly on top of the soil. Press into the ground to make good contact. They benefit from freezing, which is why it is recommended that you plant them in the fall, but that is not necessary.Poppies need sunshine, but other than that are happy to tuck themselves in many places in the garden. They don’t like to be transplanted, but I have experimented with moving a few that were “weeded out” – so I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Poppies are mildly poisonous, having alkaloids in all parts of the plant. Never had a problem with any of my animals or kids trying any out. It is the Opium poppy, not papaver rhoeas, that is grown for medicine, narcotics, and poppyseeds for food use. That is a different variety than the Shirley poppy.

Resources For Shirley Poppy Seeds

I had originally planted one collection called “Fairy Wings” which I had ordered through Thompson & Morgan, no longer available; “Angel Choir” is probably the closest choice. I notice Swallowtail Seeds has a mix looking similar to “Angel Choir”.

Heirloom Shirley Poppies From Botanical Interest