5 Ways to Use Annuals in the Garden

Grow Annuals to Attract More Pollinators 

Bees, butterflies, birds and moths bring a garden to life. So why not offer these benevolent creatures a little something to encourage them to linger longer? Annuals like Unplugged^® Pink salvia work just as hard to attract pollinators whether you grow them in containers or plant them in a sunny border. Sitting atop deep green foliage are the most beautiful hot-pink tubular flowers which are sure to catch the eye of passing hummingbirds. A black calyx surrounding each flower adds interest to this self-cleaning, compact plant. That’s right, no deadheading is needed to keep the flowers coming. 

Check out more pollinator-friendly annuals for your garden including Goldilocks Rocks^® bidens, Snow Princess^® sweet alyssum, Luscious^® lantana and Senorita Rosalita^® cleome.

 Unplugged^® Pink salvia is a magnet for hummingbirds.

Short on Space? Choose Smaller Versions of Big Plants.

I don’t know about you, but my garden isn’t complete without a sunflower or two. They’re happy flowers whose faces follow the sun, often carrying a bee along for the ride. Some tall sunflowers swallow an entire space to produce just a single bloom, which seems like a lot of effort for little return. Branching varieties sprawl in every direction, eating up valuable real estate. While their flowers may be plentiful, the space they consume can be hard to relinquish for small space gardeners.

Standing just two to three feet tall, Suncredible^® Yellow sunflowers offer the best of both worlds. Four-inch flowers cover the bushy foliage which spreads about two feet. It’s the ideal size for smaller gardens. I love how it blooms the whole season without deadheading. It thrives in sun and carries on into the fall, livening up autumn borders. 

See more ideas for small space gardening. 

Suncredible^® Yellow sunflowers stay much shorter than the kind you grow from seed, plus they bloom for months.

Use Annuals for Weed Prevention 

Maybe you have an empty spot in your garden and can’t decide what to plant. It happens. Instead of weeds telling you what to do, as they will inevitably assert themselves in any open space, use annuals as a place holder. They’ll shade out weed seeds, preventing them from germinating, while you make up your mind on what to plant there permanently. 

While you’re thinking, pop in a few Supertunia Vista^® Jazzberry^® petunias. Or, if you prefer petunias in a more subdued color, there are plenty more varieties of Supertunias from which to choose. These mounding plants flower non-stop all season, burying the foliage beneath their brilliant, pollinator-friendly blooms. Sprawling up to three feet, they can cover a lot of ground and shade out a lot of weeds in the process. Who knows? You may love them so much that you’ll decide a Supertunia Vista^® petunia was exactly what that space needed all along! 

Supertunia Vista^® Jazzberry^® petunias cover a lot of ground, shading out weed seeds in their wake.

Colorful Foliage Plants Fill the Gap

Flowers seem to get all the attention in the garden, but that hardly seems fair, especially when they can be so fleeting. In my garden, there’s a period in late July when the early summer flowers become less prolific. The dahlias haven’t popped yet and things are in a bit of a holding pattern. That’s when Colorblaze^® Lime Time^® coleus comes into play. This plant is all about foliage! The lime green color goes with everything, mixing well and offering interest when the rest of the garden is gearing up for the next phase. 

Check out the entire line of Colorblaze^® coleus and Heart to Heart^® caladiums. Their foliage colors and patterns are incredible and most work well in sun and shade. Their stems are also great for cutting for fresh arrangements. 

Colorblaze^® Lime Time^® coleus keeps its brilliant coloring all season long.

Use Flowers to Brighten Up Your Shady Spaces

Have you ever taken a picture of your garden and noticed a dark spot in a bed? Snapping pictures of your shady spaces is a wonderful way to pinpoint those areas that may be a little lost in the dark. Annual flowers can be a quick and easy solution for brightening them up.

Blooming with double flowers atop the upright, glossy foliage, the Double Up^™ series of begonias is self-cleaning and performs well when planted in the landscape and containers. Compared to regular bedding begonias, these shade lovers grow twice as big. While able to withstand a little drought, they’ll show you all they have with consistent watering and feeding. The more sun they receive, the more water they’ll need. Explore more shade-tolerant annuals. 

Double Up^™ Pink begonias add a fun pop of color in the shade.