Annuals

Prairiegardens.ca Produced for the Aruuki Artisans Group Inc

02/16/10

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 hung or 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:

Shady Annuals

Part Shade Annuals

Part Sun Annuals

Full Sun Annuals

For more in depth information on the individual annuals and pictures you can click on the veseys.com link. Click on the category and then click on the plant you want to look at. A very good site.

Below are 3 galleries of samples of gardens, pots and baskets

Shady Annuals

The 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

Part Shade Annuals

These 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

Part Sun Annuals

This 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

Full Sun Annuals

Full 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

Some Pot Samples - Pots are some of my favourite things to make, they are a challenge because you must have compatible plants for the sun/ shade element and they must blend nicely into harmonious colours. To get a good looking pot I like to pack them in and over fertilize (once a week), watering must be done at least daily later in the summer. You must remember that pots are not planted in the soil. There are no beneficial bacteria because you used sterilized potting mix, there is no reserves of water deep down, and there is no rotting organic matter that the roots can draw on. Everything must be provided by you. So you can understand that by the end of the season I am constantly looking at my watch and asking the pots "Are you finely going to die now."

Some Hanging Basket samples - Even though I make twenty or thirty pots a year I am horrible for going back and taking pictures. Most of my pictures are from photos and they don't show up clearly when scanned. Will try to add more later

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This site was last updated 12/31/06