Annual flower garden design tips
Annuals are used in the cutting garden more than any other type of flower. Usually they are planted in rows for the convenience of cutting although they can be placed in such a manner in your garden design to have a beautiful and colorful scheme. Annuals can be purchased either in the form of seeds or as plants in the early summer. One could design a formal annual garden as in the Victorian era with an intricate design or place them in groupings to have certain colors in one location. There are so many ways to design your annual garden and the suggestions below should be of help to you in making your decisions on planting if using seeds or plants.
Design tips for planting an annual flower garden
There is great variation in the growth habits of annuals. It is possible to make a beautiful garden completely of annuals by making judicious selection of species and varieties. An annual garden blooms the same year the seeds are sown making it the quickest to produce results.
In planning your design for the annual garden the dwarf annuals would most likely be placed around the exterior of the bed for the purpose of edging. The floss flower has dense heads of blue flowers. The Midget Blue is one of the best for edging having a height of 3″-4″. Pimpernel, a member of the Primrose Family has 6″-8″ star-shaped flowers of scarlet blue and white. Lobelia has many forms of dwarf varieties of blue with white for excellent edging. The African Daisy has tiny yellow and white flowers of 6″-12″ in height. Sanvitalis will have miniature zinnia-like flowers of 4″-5″. Tom Thumb dwarf varieties of the snapdragon have miniature flowers and are used for edging.
Marigolds bloom yellow, orange and brown plus many other combinations and will reach. The French Marigold comes in a dwarf form as does Harmony.
Taller annuals would be placed to the rear of the annual cutting bed.
Bachelor Buttons, Cornflowers and Ragged Robins will have blue, pink, white, purple and yellow blooms reaching to a maximum height of 3′. Spider Flowers reach to 4′with blooms of white, pink, yellow. Cosmos reach to 3′ with blooms of yellow, white, red and pink. The Dahlia can reach a height of 6′ with many colorful flowers. The Larkspur has flowers of lavender, blue, shades of pink and white with heights of 5′. Sunflowers reach heights of 8′ with blooms of yellow, orange and brown. Flowering Tobacco plants show blooms of lavender, rose, and white reaching a height of 6′.
Annuals can be planted in such a design to have flowers for: cutting, fragrance, tolerating semi-shade, full sun, poor soil, hot, dry conditions and moist conditions. According to the zone of the garden it would be helpful to be aware before planting of your intentions for the flowers such as cutting and also the soil, temperature and moisture content.
The above suggests a design for your annual garden that would help in planning the annual garden. The color groupings, heights of the annual flowers would be naturally a personal preference.
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