Favorite annuals from your 2006 garden!

I like this one alot....

Here is the last one I have in my current files, the rest are on disk.

Found one more...

Odd, I can't come up with 10 annuals. A few annuals I like are definitely Melampodium and this year, I want to try the white one. I love the celosia. For seasonal interest (summer and winter ) I plant pansies or petunias. Most definitely the Datura. I love to watch their blooms unfurl. A lot of plants that y'all are calling annuals come back each year for me... coreopsis, jewel of ophar, castor bean. I find I grow more perennials. But even the beloved 4 o'clocks come back from tubers each summer. Need to shop for more annuals I guess...

thanks for the hint of using one color zinnia and solid colors of cosmos or whatever....too late this year, but will put this idea in a notebook....

It's that last one, Dale_a -- posted at 7:30 am

I love that combination....Love it, love it, love it! For anybody reading this, if you look at that last Impatiens picture -- the one pasted at 7:30 am -- it has purple and orange! Not quite a combination I would reccomend unless you were going to see the photo at the same time! The intensity of the colors is the same -- there is no pale pink to distract the eye and there is no white to hit you between the eyes, and there is a lot of repetition which gives that sense of rhythm.

It is actually one of my very favorite flower pictures that I have ever seen. And they are just impatiens...nothing fancy. You can start them from a pack of seed (actually 5 colors, = 5 packs of seed) or buy them at the garden center. It's how they are combined that makes the difference IMHO.

Suzy

Dale, I really like the 6:28 am pic! Whats the yellow/green plant?

SW Canook, it is ginger, zone 8 and south. Probably make a good house plant. Grows fast and get big. It is widely used here. Here is another clump, with Ty plants.

Oh, thanks! That looks amazing! I have to go look it up........

what exactly is a Ty plant....so pretty with the variegated ginger. I would really like to try that combination somewhere

Lovely shots of your Impatiens, Dale. Very impressive garden. I can see why it won an award. Ü

But I was really taken with that variegated Ginger Plant, and looks great intermixed with the Ty. I too, will be looking that one up.

Thanks for sharing.

Today in the garden....

the sky had a high overcast..

and the light was perfect

even for my cheap digital camera was taking nice shots.

I like Iberis, common name Candytuft, as a "filler", it is easy to grow, I just broadcast the seed on top of the soil, and keep it slightly moist, and it will self-seed each year after that.

I use Clarkia the same way, it's quite a bit taller, grows about 24-30" here, also a good self-seeder:

Annual Poppies intermixed with Bachelor Buttons for the colour contrast:

More poppies:

Snapdragons:

Rudbeckia - these can be rampant self-seeders in a mild climate, so remember to deadhead them if you don't want zillions next year!

Phlox:

Another phlox:

Zinnia:

Calliopsis - these are very easy, and if deadheaded, will bloom right to frost:

Beautiful 2zeus ! Love your deep pink Zinnia !

Calibrachoa! /Million Bells
New favorite.
Deb

That is so pretty Deb with the soft yellows...never even heard of it....have to look it up and find out...

Dale_a,
What's this pretty little flower in your post? Sun or shade? Open or container?

http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3176652

Thanks,
Linda

Gymgirl,

That is a viola (small flowered pansy?) They are in containers. We have so many soil pests here (nematodes) that I grow most things in containers. Plus containers take less water and we are on permanent water restrictions in Florida. Too many people, not enough water. I love yellow flowers.

Bright yellow..

or muted yellows

A new hybrid Osteospermum from Homey's

Dale,
Not much $$ for my garden this summer, as I'm shifting to maters and veggies. Any suggestions on good, cheap color that will spread on an eastern back property line that has filtered sun, yet is not invasive to the grass? It would be the view out of the den, back across the patio. Thanks! I thought about just chucking in some sunflower seeds and letting them have at it. Or marigolds back there. They would be good color, and we could see them, but not smell them (folks say they stink, but I've never noticed it). Marigolds were the first flowers I ever grew. Also, they attract bees which would be beneficial in pollinating the maters that will grow perpendicular to the back line. The maters will be grown in Earthboxes. But I would direct sow any other seeds.

Thanks.

GymGirl,

Try this company, their seeds cost about $1.25 per pack for many seeds. https://www.wildseedfarms.com/welcome/index.html and they are in Fredericksburg so you know they will grow in TX. I really like Coreopsis tinctoria (they have 3 kinds, yellow, red and bicolored) and Verbena (Tuber Vervain) together.

Salvia coccinea "Lady in Red" was outstanding this year. In fact, I bought it because the stunningly bright red caught my eye from across the way at the garden center.

Another annual for a bright color that will catch your eye across the yard is Cosmos "Cosmic Red." I grew these year before last and the color is gorgeous, sort of a bright orange overlaid with bright, bright red. There's also a Cosmic Orange and Cosmic Yellow but I haven't grown those.

This was much shorter than the standard cosmos in my garden - about a foot tall although they are supposed to be up to 18 inches. I nice front of the border flower.

Another favorite annual for me is Nicotiana sylvestrus. Very tall with clusters of white flowers - long bells - at the top. Very pretty foliage and it's nice to have a tall annual. Mine grew over 5 feet tall.

Cleome "Purple Queen" is another favorite from last summer. I like cleome because it fills the bed with flowers but is so airy it doesn't really seem to compete with anything else in the bed. I really like the darker colors of the Queen varieties vs some of the more pastel varieties.

Datura has been a favorite for a long time. I actually have one that I grow as a perennial. It's in a large pot and comes inside for the winter with my brugs. LOL

Two more I almost forgot - Love Lies Bleeding and heliotrope. I just love the look of those long ropes of red tassels on the Love Lies Bleeding and the scent of the heliotrope is heavenly. And you get those lovely clusters of dark purple flowers too.

This message was edited Mar 2, 2007 3:16 PM

I have some Love Lies Bleeding that I haven't tried yet so this may be the year:) I like the green one too, viridis, I think its called and I bought a new one called Dreadlocks that looks sorta like reddish pom pom balls on a rope.

Lots of great annuals were mentioned above. However, Ageratum houstonianum or Floss Flower must have been overlooked. I found it easy to grow from seed and a good cutting flower. Mostly short (6" to 12") varieties available in nurseries but Blue Horizon (the one I grew) got 18" to 20".

Link to Ageratum houstonianum:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/256/index.html

Link to Blue Horizon variety:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/54970

Dale,
What's the border plant with your bed of impatiens? This Saturday I bought several packets of zinnias, nasturtiums and sunflower seeds. I need a bang of color for the Buck. Not a lot of $$ this summer. I'm in Zone 9a. We had 32 degree weather the last two nights, so I think I'll play it safe and germinate the seeds inside for the next 5-6 weeks. (I'll direct sow the nasturtiums. Packet says they are resistent to transplanting).

I have two small shady flowerbeds. One is on the south side of the garage and one is direct center of the yard with two trees standing in it. No bright sunlight reaches either bed. Suggestions, please for color that will grow under these conditions? P.S. I have an autumn fern that I planted in the center bed last summer that has survived the winter! It also has two small mexican heather bushes. I had coleus in the bed last summer, but I don't want to do coleus this summer. here's a pic of the flowerbed:

This message was edited Mar 5, 2007 1:34 PM

GG, which photo?