Do you need annual or perennial plants for your garden?

Do you need annual or perennial plants for your garden?

Do I need annual or perennial plants?

Saffron delights us in early spring, as it dares to peer through the snow and lift its face towards the sun. Soon after, tulips, daffodils, lilies, lilacs follow… all perennials that welcome spring with vibrant colors and fragrances. Perennials bloom at different times during the growing season and delight you with the variety of colors and sizes from early spring to late fall. However, many perennials like the ones mentioned bloom for only a few weeks and then disappear from the landscape until the following year.

Annuals provide a garden with continuous bloom and color throughout the summer. The "mission" of an annual is to produce seeds. The seeds sprout, the foliage grows, the flowers bloom, and then the plant becomes a seed. When the annual completes its mission, the entire plant (flower, foliage, and root system) dies.

Some annuals have a very short lifespan and, depending on when they are planted, they can resow and go through two or more growing cycles per season. Other annuals grow continuously from spring planting until the first fall frost.

Since annuals die completely at the end of the season, they must be replaced annually. Depending on the crop, annual seeds can be planted directly in a garden or germinated indoors for transplanting when weather conditions and soil temperature are right for growth.

Annual transplants are also available each spring at garden centers, and many are sold in inexpensive floors that contain four or more plants. Annuals can often be closely grouped together to fill arid areas of your landscape, while perennials often need room to multiply and / or grow to maturity.

Although some perennials are more expensive to buy than annuals, in the long run you may find them less expensive as they last longer than a single growing season. You can also buy groups of perennial bulbs assorted in very inexpensive packages.

Perennial foliage and flowers also die at the end of the growing season, but unlike annuals, the root systems of perennials live through the winter and re-sprout with new growth each spring.

Another advantage of perennials is that although the flowers and foliage die, the branches of evergreen shrubs offer some visual appeal to a winter landscape.

Perennials can take more than one season to reach full maturity. Because perennials are propagated from root structures, many types of perennials must also divide after three to four seasons to reduce crowding and maintain vigor.

Although all perennials can sprout over multiple seasons, perennials are divided into categories of hardy perennials or tender perennials according to the temperature zone in which they are grown.

Bulbs like tulips and daffodils are among the easiest plants to grow and are great options for a beginning gardener. The tender perennials need your help to survive the winter. Some can overwinter when covered with a layer of mulch or protected from the elements with garden accessories like rose cones. Some tender perennials need to be raised and stored indoors for the winter.

So the question remains, do you need annuals or perennials? Each type of plant has many "pros" and few "cons" if you love flowers.