Annuals & Perennials 101

One of the very first things my mom thought me about gardening was that there are some plants that will come back year after year and then there are some that will only live for one growing season. These are annuals and perennials.

Annuals

Annuals are the showstoppers in the garden most of the time. They are usually very colorful and bright. Annuals go through their entire life cycle in one season. This means the germinate from seed, sprout and grow, flower, produce seed of its own, and then die away. Annuals need to be replanted each year as they don’t normally survive the cold winters. This is of course dependent on your zone and the specific plant.

Annuals are some of my favorite flowers because they are great to use in pots and in the fronts of beds. A lot of them have seeds that can be saved and replanted for the next year if you’re into that kind of thing.

Some of the most common annuals are probably some you have seen in pots and at the front of the stores. Marigolds, Petunias, Zinnias, and Snapdragons are all annuals. These are all easy to grow from seed and will give you a colorful bed or pot in the late spring and thoughout the summer.

Perennials

Perennials are different from annuals in that they live for more than one growing season. Some will come back for years and years! As a new gardener this appealed to me because I wanted something I could plant once and enjoy year after year. During the winter, perennials go through a period of dormancy but in the spring will come alive again. I think this is why spring is my favorite season. I love all the new growth coming up from the earth after a long cold winter. Perennials are often more resilient plants. You can split them up and move them and prune them (certain ones of course) and most of the time they just keep surviving.

Annuals get the label of being colorful and bright but perennials can be that way too. Lavender and some kinds of salvia are bright purple and some pinks. Hydrangeas can be blue, white, and all shades of pink. There are even lime green flowers! Peonies are some of my favorite perennials and are some of the prettiest flowers I’ve ever seen.

Perennials are great for landscaping because they keep coming back. The kinds of perennials that will work best for you depends on your growing zone, soil, and sun that particular spot gets that you’d want to plant it in.

Right now in October, a lot of annuals are just finishing their growing season. Now is the time to collects seeds if they’ve dropped (I like to use google when I have a question about what plants I can collect seeds from and when to do it.) With perennials, now is the time to move or divide them. I have a lot of perennials I am moving this year and have already divided a bunch of my black eyed Susans and hostas.

Class complete!

Annuals & Perennials 101: A+