Specialty Gardening: Annuals in the Cottage Garden, 1 by Illoquin

Illoquin wrote:
Great thread, Chris, and I'm doing my cottage garden with annuals, one bed soley annuals, but won't start until next year, so I have absolutely nothing to share. I have a daffodil bed and dig into it every year and can't have any perennials in it (I also don't want those big root systems). I could probably have bienniels.

Some annulas do best when you throw the seed out -- they are marked in the Thomp[son-Morhan catalog as "Hardy Annual". Larkspur, poppies, alyssum....there are a bunch of them. You could wintersow them, ut on DG it's easy to end up with 1/4 cup of seed by doing trades and if you have that much seed, youcan direct sow.

Here are a couple of things I think I know: Orange Cosmos --aka Bright Lights -- is absolutely the earliest plant you can grow from seed to bloom. It would be easy to use this after the poppies, I think.

Zinnias don't get mildew under some circumstances: If they are sown late -- say June 15 here in Z 5, or if they are deadheaded (or used as cut flowers) and the soil kept moist in the dog days of summer. At my house, overhead watering is a myth, and so is close planting. I threw out seed and some of the zinnias were 2" apart.

When annuals are grown with perennials and you let them reseed, you have to look critically at the seedlings the following year and pull out the ones that are in the wrong place. Using them for cut flowers is the easiest way to do this since often times you don't know they are in the wrong place until they bloom!

Plant perennials with plenty of room between them, but plant annuals really close together. I know this, but I am not sure HOW close I can get. If the package says 9-12 inches, do I use 8-9 inches? Or 6"? I ran into a flower yesterday in my seed stash -- Celosia cockscome (Celosia cristata) to use as a cut flower and they say 2-3" apart! Yay looks like I can use a lot of seed for a small patch.

Visually, I like annuals to be in a drift the same size, or a little larger, than the size of the perennials nearby.

One combination I had last year that was to die for was giant hybrid Trumpet Lilies in whites/creams fronted by tall orange cosmos... it was gorgeous and so fragrant it made the jasmine seem just so-so.

Another combination was oriental lilies and Orienpets with the Oriental colors or maroon and white with a tall dahlia that was purple & white. There are about 4 dahlias that would work as they all have the same color, but the one I have sent a picture of is called Mystery Day. One of the lilies closest was 'Silk Road', but the others also picked up on the color.

The third combination isn't so great, but I have a place with dry shade going down in a slope away from my patio. I need tall plants so I can see the flowers over the bushes that outline the patio. Feverfew, especially the bright green (they call it yellow) foliaged one or the double flowered one with Cleome and Adenophora comfusa (lady bells-- looks like a campanula) with those same lilies with the Oriental colors was beautiful...and if not the MOST beautiful, then it bloomed in the shade without irrigation and that's good enough! I also slipped in some dark red impatiens so when I walk around to the other side, I could see more color. The impatiens reseed, same with the cleome. The Adenophora is supposed to be invasive, but it isn't for me.

I hope other people jump in here because I know I didn't really answer your questions....right now I have some roses, some clematis, and some boring daylilies (especially compared to Lincolnitesses and Geminii's) new last year. I have systematically been getting rid of my perennials that are 7 -20 years old to start over.

Suzy