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Zinnia

Zinnias are excellent as cut flowers.

Extensive breeding complicates the identity of modern garden zinnias. Although they are products of several species, most identify simply as Zinnia elegans. They exhibit a broad range of floral color and form. Short varieties grow only a few inches tall. Large varieties grow as tall as two and a half feet. They are warm season annuals that bloom until frost.

The two to four inch wide flowers bloom in phases as long as the weather is warm. Their floral color can be yellow, orange, red, purple, pink, salmon, chartreuse or bronze. Some varieties have striped or freckled flowers. Some resemble daisies, with big petals around prominent centers. Pom-pom types produce puffier flowers with nearly obscured centers.

Zinnias enjoy good exposure and rich soil. The paired and very slightly raspy leaves can be susceptible to powdery mildew. Removal of deteriorating flowers promotes continual bloom. However, a few can remain to produce seed for the following season. Their seed should be sown as soon as possible after the last frost. Zinnias are excellent cut flowers, and can last for a week or even two.

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Warm Season Annuals Are Next

Cool season annuals serve their purpose.

Cool season annuals will probably finish sooner than they typically do this season. They do not enjoy the unseasonably but pleasantly warm and dry weather. It accelerates their brief life cycles. Fortunately, warm season annuals, or summer annuals, will be happy to replace them. They are the bedding plants that provide seasonal color until next autumn.

It is still too early for some types of warm season annuals. Several prefer to wait for more sustained warm weather with warmer nights. Petunia and sunflowers can wait until April or even May. This is only the beginning of the season, when the process of replacement begins. Some cool season annuals will not require replacement until petunias are ready.

For those who grow warm season annuals from seed, the season began notably earlier. Some seed starts within a greenhouse, two or three months prior to planting in a garden. For example, seed for petunias that go into the garden in April should be started already. Some annuals, such as nasturtium, should grow from seed sown directly into the garden.

Otherwise, the most popular warm season annuals begin in cell packs. Lobelia, alyssum and wax begonia are already available. Petunia and impatiens will become available as the season progresses. Many warm season annuals are available but more expensive in four inch pots. For substantial areas of bedding, cell pack annuals cover more uniformly.

Many warm season annuals are actually perennials that deteriorate through winter. Wax begonia can actually survive through winter to regenerate about now. Some cool season annuals can similarly survive through summer. There is no need, for example, to remove English primrose from mixed plantings. They can bloom late, and regenerate for autumn.

The same marigold that were popular for autumn are popular again for the end of winter. Ageratum may also be available already. Zinnia and annual salvias should be available a bit later in the season. So should cosmos and celosia. Bedding dahlia and calibrachoa may become available later, but in four inch pots. Coleus is a foliar warm season annual. Gomphrena and annual vinca have become uncommon. Ranunculus and anemone can perform as annuals.

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Wax Begonia

Wax begonia is actually a perennial.

Wax begonia, Begonia X semperflorens–cultorum, exemplifies simplicity. Its floral color is white, pink or red. Its foliage is green, bronze or dark bronze. Each floral color combines with each foliar color for a total of only nine combinations. That must be enough, though. Variants of these nine simple options, including some with fluffier double bloom, are rare.

Wax begonia is most familiar as a common warm season annual. However, it is probably at least as popular as a cool season annual. Actually though, it is a short term perennial. Except for during the coolest winter weather, established specimens may bloom all year. After minor frost damage, most regenerate efficiently. They need only minimal grooming.

Mature wax begonia should not grow any higher or wider than a foot. As bedding plants, they blend together. Individually, they develop densely ovoid form. Flowers are small but abundant. Foliage and stems are succulent, with a waxy sheen. New plants grow easily from cuttings or division. Wax begonia prefers rich medium and very consistent watering. A bit of partial shade should be no problem, but a bit too much can inhibit bloom.

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Cool Season Annuals Return Annually

Many warm season annuals perform late.

Warm season annuals that started late last winter should be finishing their season soon. It might seem as if they replaced their predecessors, cool season annuals, only recently. This is the nature of annual bedding plants. They perform only for their particular season. It is now about time for cool season annuals, or winter annuals, to begin another season.

There is no need to hurry, though. The several different cool season annuals operate on different schedules. Only the earliest begin as small plants now, and even they can wait. Some prefer to begin later during autumn. Cyclamen and ornamental kale can even wait until winter. Only annuals that start as seed really must do so while the weather is warm.

Besides, some warm season annuals still perform too nicely for immediate replacement. Ideally, they are only beginning to deteriorate as they relinquish their space. Sometimes, some varieties are already grungy before their replacement. This facilitates their removal without guilt. However, some warm season annuals might continue to perform until frost.

Furthermore, some annuals, both cool season and warm season, are actually perennial. They merely function as annuals because their replacement is easier than their salvage. Busy Lizzie, for example, can remain mostly dormant through winter below new pansies. As the pansies finish in spring, the older busy Lizzie can regenerate for another season.

Sweet William and various primrose are cool season annuals that are actually perennial. Both can bloom until next spring becomes too warm for them. Then, they become mostly dormant until the following autumn. Any that remained dormant through last summer can regenerate and bloom this autumn. Perhaps they take turns performing with busy Lizzie.

Pansy and viola are the most familiar and reliable of cool season annuals. Marigold and snapdragon are popular now, but only as autumn annuals. They may not perform well for winter. Wax begonias might perform almost throughout the year with grooming after frost. Stock is the most fragrant of the cool season annuals. A few short varieties are available.

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Pincushion Flower

Pincushion blooms in pastel blue, lavender pink or white.

The oddly protruding stamens of pincushion flower, Scabiosa columbaria, are ideal for bees collecting pollen. To us, they resemble pins stuck into the somewhat flat surface of the composite (daisy like) flowers. To bees, they are a flea market (or bee market) of pollen. Bees easily stroll the two inch wide flowers to peruse the merchandise on display. 

The pale lavender, blue, pink or white flowers on limber stems are good cut flowers. The grayish foliage is deeply lobed and nicely textured. Mature plants can be two feet tall and broad. Bloom begins by summer and continued until frost if fading flowers get plucked. Although perennial in mild climates, pincushion flower is more often grown as an annual.

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Warm Season Annuals Start Early

Nasturtium grows best directly from seed.

Cool season annuals that started late last summer should be finishing soon. A few might have potential to continue as perennials. However, about as many are done or decaying. Now, warm season annuals, or summer annuals, should eventually start to replace them. If it seems early, it typically does for such bedding plants before their respective seasons.

Some annuals can not decide if they are cool season annuals or warm season annuals. Stock is actually a cool season annual but becomes more popular now for spring bloom. Wax begonias might have survived through winter to resume growth for another season. Primrose is a cool season annual that rarely gets too warm locally to continue blooming.

These indecisive annuals can actually be an asset to home gardens. Stock, for example, can replace old pansies while it is still too early for petunias. It compensates for cool and warm season annuals with more definite seasons. Petunias will be ready before stock is done. Some garden enthusiasts replace seasonal annuals for each of their four seasons.

Warm season annuals, like all annuals, are contrary to sustainability. Although many can perform as perennials, few actually do. Those that truly are annuals complete their entire life cycles within one year. Their main purpose is to provide floral or perhaps foliar color. Texture and form are also assets. Annuals are popular because they serve this purpose.

The most popular of warm season annuals grow from cell packs. Those that start earliest are already available, including wax begonia and lobelia. Petunia, impatien and annuals that crave more warmth will become available later. Four inch potted annuals are bigger than those in cell packs, but more expensive. They are even more expensive in quantity.

Many more varieties of warm season annuals are available as seed. Countless more are available online than from nurseries. However, seed requires more effort. Most must start early. Although most grow well in flats or cells, some prefer direct sowing. Sunflower and nasturtium are very vulnerable to the distress of transplanting. Seed is the logical option. Many seed are less expensive than six cell pack seedlings.

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Iceland Poppy

Native California poppies are nothing like this.

Because winters here are so mild, Iceland poppy, Papaver nudicaule, gets planted out in the garden in autumn to bloom through winter and into early spring. Where winters are cold, bloom must wait until after winter, whether plants are put out in autumn or sown from seed as winter ends. Iceland poppy prefers good drainage because it is out in the garden during the coldest and rainiest time of year, but is otherwise not too demanding. Picking the flowers and removal of deteriorating flowers (deadheading) promote continual bloom. 

Circular flowers up to three inches wide in shades of orange, yellow, pink, white and nearly red hover up to a foot high on wiry and hairy stems. Prominent fuzzy stamens are bright yellow at the center of each flower. Some varieties have brighter colors and taller stems. The hairy and deeply lobed leaves form basal rosettes about five inches wide.

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Semperflorens Begonia

Some of us learned this as fibrous begonia.

From spring until autumn, semperflorens begonia, which is also known as fibrous, bedding or wax, begonia, is a warm season annual. They actually start to deteriorate as the weather gets cool this time of year. However, they do not necessarily need to be pulled out as their season ends. In sheltered locations or with protection from frost, they actually survive through winter as perennials. They are so easy to propagate by cuttings or division of overgrown plants that tired older plants can replace themselves with their own babies before they get too ugly.

The small flowers of semperflorens begonia can be white, red, or various shades of pink in between. Foliage is more often green or bronze, but can be reddish or variegated. The largest plants get only a foot tall. Denser dwarf types are half as tall. Semperflorens begonia likes rich soil and regular watering (when it is not raining). They prefer partial shade, but will take full sun if mixed with other plants that keep things cool and humid.

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Sweet William

Sweet William can grow as a short term perennial.

Because they do not like warm weather through summer much, sweet William, Dianthus barbatus, is appreciated more as a cool season annual from autumn into winter and even into spring. They can also be planted early in spring for color before summer warmth. They can sometimes survive as perennials in sheltered areas, particularly if mixed and hidden amongst other perennials and annuals. Deadheading (removal of deteriorating flowers) prolongs bloom.

New plants are easy to propagate from division, cuttings or layering of tired older plants. (Layering involves rooting prostrate stems by burying them slightly and them separating them when they have developed roots.) By the time the old plants become too deteriorated to salvage, the new cuttings or layers should be ready to replace them. New plants like to start out in rich and well drained soil, but not watered too much since they can be susceptible to rust and fusarium wilt.  

The white, pink, rosy pink, red, somewhat purplish or bicolored half inch wide flowers form rather flat dense trusses on top of short stems. Minute but abundant green bracts fill the spaces between the individual flowers. The rich green leaves below are about an inch to two and a half inches long. Mature plants of the more common varieties are typically less than a foot tall and wide. More compact and larger varieties are available as seed.

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Zinnia

Zinnia look like small dahlia, but are annual.

The longer and cooler nights of autumn will soon finish the season for zinnias. (Most, but not all of the common zinnias are of the species Zinnia elegans.) They are really at their best while the weather is warm through summer and the beginning of autumn. As the garden warms up at the end of next spring, new seedlings can be planted, or zinnia seed can be sown. They like rich soil and regular watering, but are susceptible to mildew in humid spots. Sunny areas with good air circulation are best.

Like related chrysanthemums, zinnias are quite variable. Although the simpler forms remain more popular; double, cactus flowered and crested forms are also available.  Flowers can be less than an inch wide to more than five inches wide. Their color range includes white, yellow, orange, salmon, pink, red, rose, purple, lavender and even green. The narrowly oval leaves can get to about four inches long. Compact types stay about a foot tall and wide. Large types get twice as wide and more than three times as tall.