Fast-growing, fast-flowering annuals up the options for the home gardener.  While annuals typically come and go within a year, they create quite an impact in a short time span.

Annuals are easy, inexpensive and come in an amazing range of color, heights and widths, and several are fragrant. We can use them for spot or mass color in beds, as borders or in pots on the porch, patio or even placed in flower beds for emphasis.

Annuals are a handy tool for instant color in the garden.  They allow us to play with our favorite colors outdoors. These colors, in turn, set a mood. Whether a cool scene with blues, a warm  single-color garden of yellow,  or warmer theme with reds and oranges.  Cool colors are calming and recede in the distance helping a small garden appear larger. Hot colors stand out at a distance and make a large garden appear smaller. Keep in mind while arranging annual color that complementary colors ( those across from each other on the color wheel)  emphasize each other’s brightness and intensity. Yellow is opposite purple; orange is across from blue; red complements green.

Cool-season annuals can be used in the garden fall, winter and spring.

Warm-season types are useful late-spring into fall.  Cool-season annuals can be used to fill bare spots around dormant shrubs or perennials or complement  late-winter or early spring bulbs. Snapdragons, allysum, English daisies, forget-me-nots, nasturtiums, painted tongue, poppies, petunias, pansies and violas, primroses, nemesia, calendulas and stock  are among the cool-season bloomers to consider for the fall-through-spring landscape. These old-fashioned annuals are ideal for any garden, but are especially well-suited for the flower-filled cottage garden.

When the heat sets in, torenias, a must in the summer shade garden; angelonia, gomphrena and zinnias, perfect for hot, sunny days, can take over. The succulent, low-growing moss rose tolerates our long summer.  Sunflowers bring height to the warm-season garden.  In recent years, coleus varieties have multiplied, and now these colorful foliage plants are available for sun or shade. Few plants give as much with so few demands.  Caladiums, too, planted around Easter, will provide leafy color through the warm season.

The keys to success with annuals: Plant in an organically enriched, well-draining soil in an area that provides proper sunlight or shade. Keep an eye on moisture, especially until the plants are established. Look for drought-tolerant annuals for summer gardens.

Annuals benefit from monthly applications of a balanced fertilizer.