Growing Annuals & Biennial Plants

Seed’s are nature’s way of increasing plant life and it is also the simplest method for the gardener to raising annual, biennial and in sometimes a perennial flowering plants. Gardens of in new developments tend to get smaller and smaller, due to the high cost of land, therefore you could plant or grow only the best plants. Don’t waste your time on buyiong inferior seeds. Inferior seeds takes to much time to grow and the saving of a few cents is stupid. Only the best is good enough for the experienced gardener, as they knows from years of trial and error.

Flower seeds, in common with vegetable and other crops, are bred with great care and the plant breeder maintains a text book identifying the parentage of hybrid plants in the same manner as with race horses, pedigree dogs and the like. All this takes time and costs money, but the results are far superior to plants pollinated halfhazardly by bees and other insects.

Vast numbers of plants are raised from seeds but as far as flowers are concerned they are known as hardy annual, half-hardy annual, biennial and perennial.

Definition of Annuals:

Hardy Annuals A hardy annual is a plant that is raised from seed, flowers, and dies a natural death within the four seasons, although gardeners often treat certain perennials and biennials as annuals. Given favorable weather a seed crop is harvested from such plants. However seed crops fail, or may be poor in some years, and it may take the seed grower a couple of years or longer to build up an adequate supply.

Half-hardy annuals These are sometimes raised from seed sown under glass and the seedlings planted out where they are to flower when the danger of frost is past. Many however may be sown in the open ground in spring, where they will provide a colorful display. Flowering will continue until the weather turns colder in the fall.

Biennials A biennial is sown one year, produces its flowers and dies the following year. Some biennials, the wallflower for instance, may prove to be short-lived perennials in some gardens, and the same applies to some half-hardy annuals, such as the antirrhinum, in a mild winter.

Perennials A perennial is a plant of any kind that lives for more than two years. It may be perennial in a greenhouse, others grown in the open are known as hardy perennials.

F1 Hybrids Seed cataloges list many recent introductions as F1 hybrids. This is the plant breeder’s abbreviated way of recording that the seed is the result of a controlled cross of two known parent plants, or to the scientist, the first filial generation. Such seed produces plants of superior vigor and uniformity and often the flowers are of more intense color and larger than ordinary hybrid seedlings. It is, however, a long and expensive process to obtain such seed, therefore it costs more per packet. Also the complicated breeding program has to be repeated, as seed saved from F1 hybrids grown in the garden, would prove far from reliable.

How to grow a annual flower from seed.

How to Plant Annuals flowers

Where to plant Annuals and Biennials flowers

Containers – Edging and Paving – Cut Flowers – Annuals Biennials

Annuals and Biennials for the Cool Greenhouse

How to use Annual and Biennial flowers

Growing Annual and Biennial plants

Annuals for your Garden