Annuals 101

When you think about it, we expect a lot out of annuals in a short period of time: To germinate, grow to full-sized plants, and flower their heads off for as long as possible is a tall order. Home gardeners can help annuals fill this order by providing them with a few very basic things:

Get the annuals in the ground, whether directly in the garden or in a container, as soon as spring weather has really come to stay. If you plant annuals too early in spring, they may just sit and sulk in the soil, never fully recovering or, worse yet, being killed by a late spring frost. Conversely, if you plant annuals too late in the season, you’re not giving them enough time to do want they want to do, namely mature and provide a brilliant display of flowers.

Be sure to match the needs of a particular annual with the right location in your garden. Although there are notable exceptions, in the main, annuals love a full sun location. You may be able to get a sun-loving annual to put on an adequate show with only four hours of direct sun a day, but you’re doomed to disappointment if you plant a sun-lover in the shade, or a shade-lover in the sun.

Although some annuals are remarkably tolerant of a wide variety of soils, you’ll always get better results if you plant them in a well-drained, loose, loamy soil. If your soil is heavy (or exceptionally sandy), before planting add two or three inches of organic soil amendment (such as compost, ground bark, or peat moss) and cultivate the soil to a depth of six inches or more, incorporating the organic amendment as you turn the soil.
Some of the newer varieties of annuals are “self-branching” and don’t require that you pinch the growing tip out of the young plant. While you’re at the nursery or garden center, be sure to ask whether or not the plants you’ve selected require pinching. It’s amazing what this one small step can do. With it, your plants will likely mature into well-branched, bushy specimens that don’t require staking. Without pinching, tall plants may simply fall over and struggle to mature, never really amounting to much