Best Annuals

Planting For Colour


Colour is exciting and hybrids are some of the best annuals (bedding plants) to flower in spectacular displays in every season.  They may be raised from seed or purchased as small plants in punnets.


Hummingbird and Butterfly Mix
 Tulip - Fringed - Mixed Astilbe - Ostrich Plume Astilbe - Simplicifolia 'Bumwalda'

Best Annuals image 1. - Bumblebee on flowerWhen planted, annuals are best to lift dreary corners of a garden into well defined sections with their colourful masses of flowers.  The best annuals are the new hardy crossbreed or hybrids and a lot of these are problem free.  Others are colourful for weeks before red spider, rust or some other problem overtakes them.  Hybridists have enhanced the size and quality of the flowers and increased their vigour and disease resistance, features which make growing annuals enjoyable.

Fragrant Flower Garden Kit

Fragrant Flower Garden Kit

Ready for Springtime? This unique seed collection of incredibly fragrant flowers will fill your days and evenings with simply delightful scents!  It'll also make the perfect party favor or gift for any occasion. The included reference guide provides helpful information on all 9 varieties included in this charmingly boxed kit. Included in the Fragrant Flower Garden Kit: Jasmine Nicotiana, Sweet Pea, Stocks, Rainbow Pinks, Garden Phlox, Sweet Dream Verbena, Four-O-Clocks, Lemon-Scented Monarda, Butterfly Weed, Vanilla and Helotrope. Detailed booklet, stakes and pencil are also included!

Gardener's Supply CompanySince colour is the aim of bulb and annual planting, it is best choosing annuals which flower simultaneously.  Also take into consideration their heights, placing the shortest at the front and the tallest at the back.  Annuals are best planted in lines or in groups, squares, circles, drifts or triangles between shrubs or in beds.  You can purchase many flowering plants like annuals, perennials and camellias from Garden Express and view their products.  They are located in Victoria's Yarra Valley,  right in the center of the Monbulk-Silvan horticultural area.  They are Australia's leading  mail order  gardening service and if you live in Australia you must have seen their television adertisements.


Use annuals on their own or mix them with bulbs and perennials whose growth and colours mix cheerfully and are suited to the site and conditions.  Most have a preference for the sun.  If you want to grow the best annuals prepare the ground until a fine tithe is achieved.  The roots of annuals, perennials and bulbs need a light open soil.  Planting time is central with annuals.  Planting too early or too late will mean annuals reach maturity at the wrong time and may be spoiled by frost or heat.  There are special polyethylene-coated steel grow-through supports, on the market to help display and support your beautiful flowers.  Hybrid annuals and vegetables are top quality plants bred especially to give the best features known.  A hybrid is a cross between two different parents and is designed to include the most desirable characteristics of each parent and to reduce or eliminate the undesirable features.



Best Annuals image 2. - Pink FlowerYears of study, research and experimentation into flower size, compactness and disease resistance have been devoted in creating the best annuals for a particular variety.  The development of a hybrid is a slow and expensive process but the results yield the best annuals giving one or more of the subsequent advantages:
  • Hybrid vigour, permitting the plant to develop under adverse growing conditions.
  • Greater uniformity and consistency of maturity.
  • By incorporating disease resistance from one of the parents, the hybrid varieties always have better disease tolerance, which makes them the best annuals to have in the garden.


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