Gran5, I quit planting annuals a couple of years ago, it just didn't seem worth it, after putting them in year after year in my 40 year old home. Now it's antique roses and other perennials that will come back every year. Just don't have the desire anymore...

I have some lantana, although the light yellow is also an annual here too - only some come back, and some re-seed.
I like old fashioned, vining petunias and "laura bush" re-seeding petunias as they tolerate our weather here, and I can plant them directly in the ground.
Mostly I like the 'regular' old annuals: zinnias, gomphrena, balsam impatience, amaranth, sunflowers...I also have some annual native Texas salvias (red), talinum (a favorite with the gold leaves), little coral abelmoshus, moonvines and Japanese morning glories, orange and "regular" cosmos, nigellas, mexican sunflowers and so many more! Gimme a jungle!

I have to have larkspurs, amaranth, and cosmos. My most used annual is paludosum daisy. I wish it lasted longer- it's already starting to yellow. I also love big tall poppies- especially the feathery ones!
Renee

I have a soft spot for pelargonium gernaniums, pink and red. They are just very Mackinac Island to me. My desire is to have my house look like its taken out of Mackinac Island. I also love anything that goes in the pink, white, purple spectrum. Impatiens, cosmos, zinnias...

In my beds I have a few self-seeding annuals that I love and that have survived the test of time. None of them are as thuggish or as difficult to keep under control as forget-me-not (which I am currently trying to remove from my garden and lawn with only limited success.) I have Nicotiana in a range of shades from chartreuse to white through a range of pinks to a bright red and a very deep red. In addition to the gorgeous flowers, it is evening/night scented so that from about 4 PM onwards, the vanilla-like scent wafts around the yard and garden and into the house through open windows. Because I don't start them indoors, they start blooming in mid-July and continue until freeze, but if I wanted to collect seed and start them indoors, they would bloom earlier.

In early summer I have annual poppies that provide a slightly salmony pink flower with a basal purple blotch and curly-edged blue-green leaves. I find the seed heads decorative, and the seed-eating birds are entertaining as they balance on the bobbing stems to get at the seeds.

Verbena bonarensis blooms in August through frost and is very tall, but airy enough to look appropriate anywhere in the border. It has small purple flowers.

I also leave a few Johnny-jump-up volunteers since I got the original plants from my delightful MIL. They often bloom in late fall and during early spring thaws when nothing else is blooming.

I do plant annuals and tender perennials every year in pots for the patio and next to the door. I plant a few pansies for their cheerful color in early spring, often accompanied by contrasting foliage like tall charteuse leaf lettuce, curly parsley, or feathery fennel. For summer I use some true annuals like trailing petunias or million bells, but many of the plants I use are tender perennials like 'Black and blue' Salvia, which has stunning bright blue-violet flowers that the hummingbirds love, various coleus, and Evolvulus glomerata which is low and mounding with slightly gray foliage and flowers that bloom all summer in a light true blue. I have successfully overwintered all of these as plants along with what I think is bonfire begonia, which regrows from a tuber each spring, as does gold-leafed sweet potato vine (Ipomoea.) Just last year I began using Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' which has a constant froth of tiny white flowers all summer until after frost, but I have not tried to winter this over yet.

I always enjoy many annuals, but after attempting to have as many as I like for a few years, it just proved too much. Too much work, too much time, too much money. I've cut back from about 15 pots a summer to maybe 4. It also depends on how much work your garden is I suppose. If I had a fully established garden and no hardscaping to be done and no projects, then I would probably be looking for something to do.

I collect seed from Four O'Clocks and grow those in pots. They are fragrant at night and will bloom in part sun. I don't have a lot of full sun.

I love pansies, but didn't even add any this year, because in similar springs, they have not performed. I kept waiting for them to start growing and blooming and then before you know it, it's too hot for them.

Sometimes I add annuals in the ground and if they reseed, that works easily for me. Alyssum, California Poppies, Cosmos reseed for me some years. Portulaca, but I grew that too much and got tired of it. One of my favorites is actually a Biennial...Lunaria. I love that plant and wonder what would I do without it.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, but really it would be easier to answer which annuals I don't like. :-)

I buy seed from Wildseed farms, they have wildflower mixes which have mixed annuals. Those are my faves because they look beautiful and they are almost no work.
I'm putting in some zinnias and sunflowers this year as well.

I always have to have purple petunias as well as other colored ones but try to choose some different plants every year and they are all my favorites! Some I have often or occasionally are (and some are perennial in warmer climates): nasturtium, alyssum, geranium, peony poppy, forget-me-not, pansy, Johnny jump ups (self seeding), calendula, marigold, sunflower, dusty miller (sometimes comes back but best treated as an annual here), portulaca, Four o'clock, annual flax, coleus, snapdragon, bachelor's button, begonia, lime and purple sweet potato vine, cosmos, Impatiens. Some I use only in containers, others only in the garden, some in both places.

Hi gran5 its jackie here lol hope I got the right one as there are two gran 5's

I now grow all of my annuals from seed indoors under lights, along with my veg. This year I grew over 100 petunias, some Cleome, Blanket Flower, lots of Zinnia, Asters, Impatience, seed Dahlia, and the one annual I can never do with out - Lobelia. You just cant get that blue any where else.

Cleomes, delphiniums--where here function as annuals, alas, snapdragons--especially the supertall Rocket ones, now at the very tail end of looking good, impatiens and coleus for shade, and trachelium caeruleum, especially "Devotion Blue"--which sometimes survives more than a season.

Kay

I cannot garden without larkspur, cornflowers, poppies and zinnias. I grow all from seeds and let all self-sow. I also grow nigella that self-sows and have enough to last a lifetime!

A few annuals to others that are perennials to me -- verbena bonariensis (stick verbena), dusty miller, verbena imagination.

Cameron

I fill two beds every with annuals. The large crescent bed usually is planted with annual blue salvia because the plant is so drought resistant and reliable for both in height and color. Also blooms way into Fall. I've tried snap dragons and they are pretty but need more attention to do well and keep blooming. This year I'm going to try the blue salvia around the edges of the bed with the larger yellow marigolds in the center. Never grew this marigold before, so it will be a learning experience.

The little sunken garden bed does well with most annuals that can tolerate some shade. I haven't decided what to plant there this year.

Geraniums are my choice for urns and pots. Zinnias, pin cushion flower, allysum, nasturtiums, and dianthus get tucked in wherever I can find a spot.

Love, love, love cleome!

{{gwi:677647}}

Christine

Robbinhood50...trying to reach you...try the beautyboard on here..Gl

Robbinhood 50...thats at the homesite, etc

Well, I tried not to sow sweet peas one year, but my garden was�nt the same without them. Besides Sw peas, each year I sow petunias, poppies, zinnias, chinese asters and cosmos. It is easy with winter sowing method.