The life expectancy of annual flowers is short - by the fall of their colors there is no trace. But even in such a short time they manage to become the most striking and unique decoration of the garden. How to grow annual plants and how to make your garden truly colorful?
Planting conditions
In botany, plants are called annuals that bloom the same year they were sown. But under the conditions of gardening in our climate, plants that simply can not survive the harsh winter, although they can live more than one year in warmer conditions, can become annuals. Therefore, they are grown as annual plants - each year they are sown again. These colors include petunia, snapdragon, verbena, tobacco, heliotrope, lobelia, cineraria.
As a rule, annuals propagate by seed. Many of them have a rather long growing season, so they are advised to sow early. Such crops bloom earlier, and their seedlings are more powerful. So, cloves, begonias and lobelia can be sown for seedlings in January. Asters and verbena can grow in March. The end of April is a good time for purslane, zinnia, castor oil plants, cosmea. It is recommended that you first germinate nasturtium and morning glory, and then sow it in flower pots with nutritious soil. Planting these annual garden flowers in open ground is necessary only in mid-May - after the threat of spring frost passes. In mid-May you can also plant poppy, eschscholzia, calendula and alissum.
In many annual plants, seeds are prone to fungal damage. Therefore, before planting in open ground, it is recommended to etch them in a solution of potassium permanganate (1 g per liter of water). Five minutes is enough for processing.
To get earlier seedlings, the seeds of snapdragon, poppy, left-handed, marigold, reseda and many other plants are recommended to be soaked in clean water until they "wake up" - this can be seen by the appearance of salivary foam. The soaking process can take from 6 to 24 hours. After that, the awakened seeds are dried a little and sown in already prepared places. When sowing, the area with wetted seeds should be moistened so that the sprouts do not die. Very small annual plants (poppy, tobacco, snapdragon , etc.) are advised to sow, previously mixed with sand - so that the crops are more even. You need to mix in a ratio of 1 to 10: 1 gram of seeds per 10 grams of sand.
Annuals as a decoration of the garden
One of the advantages of annual flowers is their versatility. They can be planted both in groups and in single landings. Low-growing annuals can be an excellent backdrop for large, flowering plants such as castor oil or decorative sunflowers.
Annuals can be curb (carpet) and high. Both those and others can become a good decoration. The main thing is to arrange them harmoniously: carpet plants are in the foreground, and tall ones are in the background. Beautiful floral carpets can be obtained from gatsaniya, whose flowers are similar to chamomile flowers. They delight with their colorful view from mid-summer to autumn. In addition to gatzania, there are other carpet flowers. Annual garden plants such as Iberis, always-flowering begonia, undersized marigolds are also able to form beautiful floral carpets.
From annual plants, you can make excellent floral arrangements. Plants of different shades of the same color or close to each other are very well combined. So, to the flowerbed with the main blue color, you can pick plants lilac-pink or purple - such as sage, laver, petunia, ageratum and cleome. Yellow and orange are perfect for red flowers (poppy, salvia, verbena) - such as radiant marigolds, eschscholzia, marigolds, snapdragons. Contrast compositions look great in which colors are enhanced by each other: yellow and violet, orange and blue. Try to plant annual plants so that each of them can show itself, and then your garden will turn into a flower fairy tale.