Annuals are a topic that gets a lot of positive feedback from many gardeners. When the word is mentioned, people often think of carefully manicured beds, often with foliage hidden by bright flowers. While some people love the vibrant and reliable color, others despise them for being resource-intensive and hard-wearing. Usually, when I think of annuals, I think of a different group and a completely different perspective: increasingly, I use water-efficient annuals as rich, textured fillers to compete with weeds in new or renovated beds, and as fillers in areas where I expect a dull spot in perennial and meadow beds. I’ve also started using them as cut flowers, complementing the occasional perennial cut for the kitchen counter. These annuals blend easily with native and cottage plantings, and reliably reseed year after year. Many of these plants are not what comes to mind when someone says “annuals”; if you’re more interested in annuals that complement your garden beds rather than replace them, read on.
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Love-in-a-mist and Spanish love-in-a-mist
Nigella damascena and Nigella hispanica
With two opposite common names but a wonderful beauty, “love in the mist” (sometimes called “devil in the bush” or scientifically Nigella damascena) remains one of my easiest annuals to grow with an exceptionally long season of interest. It produces fern-like foliage and an upright form, producing semi-double flowers in cool tones, most commonly pale blue. These delicate flowers, covered by thin, fuzzy foliage, give the plant its first common name. The second name comes from the spectacularly strange pods that swell between the transparent leaves like horned balloons. Both are wonderful additions to bouquets. If dried, the attractive seed heads can last for months. The plant is well behaved and self-seeds well—not too enthusiastically, but always present.
More and more I develop a Spanish love in the mist, or Nigella SpainLarger and more robust than the classic garden variety, the Spanish Love-in-a-mist is significantly more drought tolerant, twice as large as the previous variety, and self-seeds with greater enthusiasm.
Lemon mint
Monarda citriodora
Most of us Rocky Mountain gardeners are familiar with bee mint (Monarda fisulosa), a minty perennial native to our area that produces dense, 3-inch clusters of bright pink flowers that cover square stems. However, many people don’t know that there is also a native annual species of monarda in our area. It is only about half the height of the more famous perennial and blooms like crazy, forming whorls of flowers along the stems rather than a single cluster at the top. Since I learned about the latter, I have enjoyed their unusual flower shapes and scents in my gardens and vases, and find them to be reliable, unpretentious companions in meadow and cottage borders. Monarda citriodoraLemon balm, or monarda, is arguably the most beautiful native species. It is easy to grow and has a pleasant citrus scent, along with classic deep pink monarda flowers.
plain daisy
Coreopsis tinctoria
To add a warm tone to an arrangement, consider coreopsis plains. The plants are arching, about two feet tall with a slender shape. Their flowers, each with eight yellow, notched petals, were traditionally used in fabric dyeing—referring to the nickname dye-and grow on stiff stems. Native to the Great Plains, these plants are easy to grow and offer some interesting features. Before flowering, their bead-like buds are shiny and metallic. The foliage on these plants is quite small and straight, reflecting the appearance of the stiff stems of these Plains residents. In some settings, the plants will reliably return each year and can self-seed with some enthusiasm. Minimizing the seedbed around your coreopsis patch will reduce the rate at which they will seed. So if you are worried about too many of these flowers, make sure you don’t leave bare soil near the plants and dig in gravel and organic mulch two to three inches deep.
How to grow annual flowers for cutting
When planting annuals for cut flowers, keep in mind that the goal is to have large, healthy plants early in the season. These plants will be better prepared to produce more flowers as summer approaches.
Start sowing and caring
I like to direct sow these flowers and often sow several batches to ensure I get a good bed, even if germination is uncertain for one batch. This also helps to ensure plants at different life stages in the yard, meaning I get longer lasting blooms. Also remember, these plants can be grown in traditional garden beds as a filler or in more intensive farm style rows on irrigation lines for true cut flowers. If growing the latter, consider fertilizing lightly during the growing stage with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer (to build a strong growth frame) and then with a phosphorus-rich fertilizer (to promote flower production).
Whether you plant in rows or beds, regular cutting, keeping out aggressive weed competition, and regular watering are surefire ways to keep your annuals blooming. Aggressive deadheading also helps to minimize reseeding, if you’re concerned about reseeding. Personally, I love surprise plants when they pop up around the holes in my lawn. After all, they’re much prettier than the weeds that would otherwise grow there, and much less aggressive.
See more Mountain West regional reports here.
To discuss these plants or ask other gardening questions, chat with the author on the Gardening Answers forum.
Find out more:
The Best Bee Balms
Native Annuals and Biennials for the Western Highlands
More information about cut flower gardens
Bryan Fischer lives and gardens at the crossroads of the Great Plains and the Rockies. He is a horticulturist and curator of plant collections for a local botanical garden.
