What do you do with flowers in the garden after they die?

[Croissantsfordinner]

Planning to buy some pots of flowers and plant them in the garden. What am I supposed to do at the end of the season once they die? Will they come back next year or will I need to buy new ones every year?

If you want your plants to bloom every year, you'll need to buy perennials. Bedding plants only flower for one season and then go on the compost heap but many annuals will set seeds and come up as new plants next year, often in unexpected spots.

Also shrubs flower annually, if they are the flowering type.

Thank you. I didn't mean shrubs with flowers but proper spring flower beds of all types. I also wanted to plant some tulips but not sure what to do with bulbs.

I just don't understand if I should just let it die and replant or there is a chance they come back the following year but based on what @Knittedfairies2 I need to find out if I am planting annuals or perennials? For example it looks like ranunculus are annual, if I buy a pot and plant it on the ground, will the flowers be back on their own next year?

@Croissantsfordinner You need to do your research first, then you can decide what you want and then go and buy it. Perhaps a basic book would be helpful for you such as 'The Flower Expert' by DG Hessayon. Cheap second-hand copies available on ebay etc and you often see them in charity shops. There's a whole series of 'Expert' books covering a wide range of gardening topics.

Online is all very well, but nothing beats a beginner's gardening book that you can read from cover to cover imo.

The plants you buy at the nursery or garden centre will come with a label and it will tell you if it's a perennial or an annual. If it's a perennial I will leave it in place but usually prune them back in spring (unless the label tells me otherwise). I pull up annuals once they die back, usually in the early winter, and they go in the garden waste bin - annuals don't come back. Hardy annuals will self seed, so you don't need to pull them up unless you want to.

There are a lot of really good gardening groups on Facebook, and an introductory level gardening book would be a good buy as @Yamadori says.

Spring bulbs like daffodils, tulips and bluebells come back every year. You're supposed to leave them six weeks after the flowers have died before cutting the foliage back. This is because the bulbs gets energy from the plant or something. If you cut the dead foliage back too soon, they might not come back next year. This does mean you have six weeks or so of the garden looking a bit messy because the plants look dead. Because of this I've planted my tulips and daffodils in the lawn and around the edge of the garden, but not in the flower beds. I like to plant the summer bedding plants in May abd don't want the beds to be full of dead daffodils!
Annual bedding plants usually die in the autumn once we get frost. They usually don't survive until the slnext summer but occasionally they come back to life the following year and surprise me! That's why I never pull them up until the following May

Bulbs grow back the next year, but you do get diminishing returns after a while. I can't speak for others, but I find the number of tulip flowers drop away quite quickly, then crocuses, with daffodils lasting the most years before they need replacing. If you want guarantees, just buy them about to flower and enjoy. It's not the cheapest way though.

Ranunculus, (the Persian buttercup ones sold as cut flowers) can come back from corms, but often don't. So assume they are annual and it's a bonus if they do.

Tulips, again often grown as an annual. But some can come back, but they may not flower. Most commercial ones are bred to be big and showy for one year. But you can buy species tulips or ones marked as perennialising and they are more likely to come back. I've also seen if you don't have them in too strong sun/cooking in a pot over summer, they are more likely to come back. So I put my potted ones in the bed under the oak for spring sun and summer shade once they'd flowered. We'll see! Having said that the last year's ones in the pot on the shady lawn are looking promising too. Also you can't cut the foliage as they need it to feed the bulb.

If you are planning on planting perennials in pots, check out their hardiness, as some of them will need to overwinter in a greenhouse.
As to the flowers that will die - you can create a compost heap and put them on there.
But as a PP suggested, you could do with some getting some general beginner gardening advice. And do google heavily. Also my experience of FB gardening groups is that people are only too pleased to share their knowledge of what to do with this plant or that. There is a wealth of information out there!

You sound like you are completely overwhelmed, so try to focus on the basics first and start simple.

By planting in the garden I assume you mean in flower beds. For this you want a range of hardy perennials, which are there all the time, then you can fill in the gaps with annuals. Some of these will go on into late autumn, keep deadheading them. When they die get rid, if they are perennials they won't die (hopefully). Some perennials regrow from new each year, you will often see new shoots popping up around the base of the plant from the autumn, but wait to cut back the dead stuff until spring.

Obvious hardy perennials to look out for, and that are easy, are things like roses, peonies, hardy geraniums, sedums, oriental poppies, geums, verbena, fuchsia, hypericum. Websites like Farmer Gracy and Crocus have good advice sections.

Then some hardy annuals will self seed and pop up each year like Nigella, Calendula, foxgloves. I always grow Cosmos from seed as they are dead easy to grow, and fill up gaps quickly and abundantly.

I would forget tulips for this year, plant them in the autumn for next spring. I treat tulips as annuals.

The tip for the Hessayon book is a good call. I have so many beautiful gardening books, but i go back to the no nonsense advice time and again. His book on the easy care garden is also good.

As a more general introduction I always recommend Gardening in Pyjamas by Helen Yemm.