Hardy Annuals

Most years I grow a fair number of hardy annuals. The point about hardy annuals is that they can be started from seed directly in the garden where they are going to grow.  They often bloom for a very long time and are inexpensive.

In fact after a few years of growing them, most hardy annual plants seed themselves or produce a lot of seeds that can be saved and replanted the next year.

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) - on the right growing with Dianthus deltoides

In the case of Nigella pictured above, it selfseeds and you normally get new ones without having to do anything.  In the photo on the right they have volunteered among Maiden pinks (Dianthus deltoides). However they are more numerous when you save seeds and plant them outside in the spring (as in the photo on the left above).

California poppies in the garden of my friend Pat

For many hardy annuals, including the Cafifornia poppies above, the ideal is to have some plants that have selfseeded and some that you have seeded. They likely will not  bloom at the same time, and so you will extend the blooming season.

Seeding them indoors a few weeks ahead of transplanting to the outside can give you earlier blooms. However it is more work starting them indoors and, often times, they do not bloom that much earlier.

Although the ones seeded directly outside sprout later, they can catch up with the ones seeded inside some weeks earlier because they do not have to go through the shock of being transplanted.

Iberis umbellata

Candytuft (Iberis umbellata) is one annual I like to scatter in clumps, often in the vegetable garden. In my experience it does not selfseed much. However it is easy to save seeds for the next year.

Unless you want only one specific colour, even when you can save seeds, every now and then it is advisable to buy new ones.  As years go by, the colours tend to be less and less varied, and "new blood" gives you a better palette.

Eritrichium rupestre

 My favorite hardy annuals might be Eritrichium rupestre, an annual I discovered only a few years ago. It might not selfseed, but it is very easy to start outside from seed you have collected the year before.

It is similar to forget-me-nots, but the blue is much more intense and it is not invasive.

Nasturtiums come in a great variety of colours and foliages

Nasturtium is an old standby.   Even if they come back from year to year, I always start a few in pots as they are handy to fill gaps. I do not remember what I was going to grow in the black container in the picture above. Whatever it was, it did not grow, and I just filled the container with some standby nasturtiums I had started in pots in case I needed them.

Calceolaria mexicana

This is another hardy annual which I have known for only a few years, but I would feel sorry to be  without.

Calceolaria is slightly more tricky to grow as the seeds are minute, and the plant takes longer to grow to blooming size. It can be started directly outdoor but it blooms earlier if you start it inside.

Annual batchelor buttons (Centaurea cyanus ) also come in white and pink

I conclude with the king of the annuals that come back year after year in this garden:  the poppy.