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01/23/12

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Annuals used for Pots, Baskets, and Beauty

The following lists will help you when you are trying to choose annuals to beautify the garden. Remember that annual means one year. So these plants will flower for most of the season and then die at the end of the summer. You will have to buy them again next year. You could try to collect seed but most annuals now are hybrids. Which means breeders might take an orange mother and a purple father to come up with a red son. So if you take the seed from the son (F1 hybrid), then next year you might end up with a colour totally different from the plant a year earlier.

As you go through the annual list if you are from different parts of Canada or from another country you will notice that many of the plants are perennials. This is true but on the prairies these plants can turn black with one light frost or in the case of geraniums they need to be taken inside. Greenhouses treat these as throw away plants; therefore, are considered annuals.

There are many more annuals that are used and sold in greenhouses. This list represents the bulk of available annuals. You should be able to find most of these

The 4 categories are:

bulletShady Annuals
bulletPart Shade Annuals
bulletPart Sun Annuals
bulletFull Sun Annuals
bulletShady Annuals

 
bulletThe list is divided into general areas. The plants are placed at the bottom category, they can move up but not down. These plants will do well in deep shade but do better if you can give them more sunshine. Plants like Spikes, can be used for all categories.

Asparagus Fern

 

Bush Violet

Browallia speciosa

Coleus

Coleus X hybridus

Spike

Dracaena indivisa

English Ivy

Hedera helix

Fibrous Begonia

Begonia semperflorens

Fuchsia

Fuchsia

German Ivy

 

Impatiens

Impatiens walleriana

Kennel worth Ivy

 

Lamium

Lamium maculatum

Lobelia

Lobelia erinus

Monkey flower

Mimulus X hybridus

Nepeta

Nepeta

Spider Plant

Chlorophytum comosum

Tuberous Begonia

Begonia tuberous type

Wax Ivy

 

Wishbone Flower

Torenia fournieri

 

bulletPart Shade Annuals

 
bulletThese plants have much more flower colour and therefore require a little more sunshine. If they get too much shade they will become leggy, where you have long stems and smaller leaves. Too much sunshine though and they will burn easily and you will have a plant with washed out colour and brown edges

Schizanthus

Schizanthus X wisetonensis

Alyssum

Alyssum maritimum

Canary Bird Vine

Tropaeolum peregrinum

Clarkia

Clarkia elegans

Corn Poppy/Shirley

Papaver rhoeas

Dahlia

Dahlia hybrid

Flowering Tobacco

Nicotiana alata

Four-O'clock Wonder

Mirabilis jalapa

Iceland Poppy

Papaver nudicaule

Ivy geranium pelargonium peltatum

Johnny Jump ups

Viola tricolor

Lavatera

Lavatera hybrids

Lotus vine

 

Pansy

Viola X wittrockiana

Pot Marigold

Calendula officinalis

Silver liquorice Helichrysum petiolare

 

 

bulletPart Sun Annuals

 
bulletThis area includes most annuals. As part sun I am assuming that at some point in the day there is light shade, either from a tree or from a building. All these plants will do exceptionally well in full sun provided  they get lots of watering and  fertilizing. These plants represent the main bulk of what is sold in greenhouses. Plants marked with an asterisk * will do well in part shade but not full sun. The dry tolerant annuals I include in the category of Full Sun Annuals as this is often a problem when growing in full blinding summer light especially in areas like Lethbridge or Medicine Hat.

African Daisy

Arctotis venusta

Annual Phlox

Phlox drummondii

Bacopa Vine  

Canterbury Bells

Campanula medium

Cape Marigold

Dimorphotheca aurantiaca

China Pink

Dianthus chinensis

Chinese Aster

Callistephus chinensis

Cobaea

Cobaea scandens

Cockscomb

Celosia argentea cristata

Cockscomb, Feather

Celosia argentea plumosa

English Daisy

Bellis perennis

Gazania

Gazania x hybrida

Zonal Geranium

Pelargonium X hortorum

*Gerbera

*Gerbera jamesonii

Globe Amaranth

Gomphrena globosa

Heliotropium

Heliotropium arborescens

Hollyhock

Althaea rosea

Kochia

Kochia scoparia

Love-in-a-mist

Nigella damascena

*Monkey Flower

*Mimulus guttatus

Morning Glory

Ipomoea purpurea

*New Guinea Impatiens

*Impatiens hawkeri/ linearifolia

Pepper Plant

Capsicum annuum

Petunia

Petunia X hybrida

Salvia

Salvia splendens

Salvia, blue

Salvia farinacea

*Scaevola

*Scaevola aemula (humilis)

Stock

Matthiola incana

Sunflower

Helianthus annuus

Swam river daisy

Brachycome iberidifolia

Sweet Basil

Ocimum basilicum

Yellow Sage

Lantana camara

Zinnia

Zinnia elegans

   

 

bulletFull Sun Annuals
bulletFull sun plants I consider to have no respite from the sun. They are planted in the middle of the yard or beside the foundation and they often have to contend with little water or competition from other plants. So this set of annuals are tougher and don't require the amount of care and dead heading that the above group would require.

 

Blanket flower

Gaillardia pulchella

Calendula (pot marigold)

Calendula officinalis

California Poppy

Eschscholzia californica

Castor Bean

Ricinus communis

Cleome

Cleome hassleriana

Cosmos

Cosmos bipinnatus

Dahlberg Daisy

Dyssodia tenuiloba

Everlasting

Acrolinum roseum (Helipterum)

Gazania

Gazania rigens

Helipterum

See Acrolinum roseum (Everlasting)

Livingstone Daisy

Dorotheanthus bellidiformis

Livingstone Daisy

Mesembryanthemum (see Doro)

Love-lies-bleeding

Amaranthus caudatus

Marigold, African

Tagetes erecta

Marigold, French

Tagetes patula Bonanza yellow

Portulaca

Portulaca grandiflora

Snow-on-the-Mountain

Euphorbia marginata

Strawflower

Helichrysum bracteatum

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This site was last updated 01/23/12