What I don't understand about gardening...annuals

[OrchidFan]

Hello

I'm new to all this and tend towards low maintenance stuff so far! Eg evergreen bushes. (I'm also mostly succulents indoors!)

What I don't understand, especially when I go round the garden centre is...stuff that flowers for one season only...

1. do you dig it up and compost it afterwards?
2. Why buy this when you can buy stuff that flowers year after year?
3. any recommendations for stuff I can plant in pots that will flower year after year and be very low maintenance/hard to kill?

Sorry for the probably stupid post and thanks!

> do you dig it up and compost it afterwards?

Yes, that's right. But it will also self seed so if you plant the annuals in a place where they are well suited to grow then your one plant this year may turn into fifty next year.

If you want to try this then it's good to start with something like poached egg plants, which self seed very freely.

> Why buy this when you can buy stuff that flowers year after year?

With annuals, the seeds are very cheap and if the weather turns out wrong and they all die, it doesn't matter so much. The kind of plants that flower year after year take a couple of years to get old enough to flower, and then if they die you have to start all over again.

> any recommendations for stuff I can plant in pots that will flower year after year and be very low maintenance/hard to kill?

This depends hugely on where you live, because different plants grow in different climates. Can you tell us where you live (ish) and what sort of growing conditions you have? For example are you sheltered or shaded by buildings, fences or trees, or is it very open to the sun and wind and rain.

Some nice annuals to start with are poached egg plant, violas, nasturtiums, corn flowers and nigella.

All will self seed freely as long as the conditions are okay. (not to saturated ground and not completely dried out.)

Sunflowers also fun. If you want lots of plants cheaply just to try, then a bag of harry hamster tasty food mix can be good. It has lots of pumpkin seeds and sweetcorn which would be quite pricy if you bought them from a garden centre seed section.

Yes as the above said, annuals do die but some will self seed:

Nigella, larkspur, snapdragons, sweet peas, feverfew (not an annual but does easily seed), aqualegia, hollyhock, foxgloves etc. Basically wildflowers are the ones that easily self seed. Cultivated flowers don't tend to.

But if you want to have permanent flowers, grow perennials from seed. Now is a good time to sow:

Rudbeckia, Echinacea, grasses, lupins, and a few others. Master my Garden podcast has a sow along which is useful.

The most important thing is to know what sort of conditions you have. If you can tell us then we can give you a steer towards things that work.

Also handy to know what kinds of pests you have. If you have deer coming into the garden than that is very different from having squirrels and pigeons for example.

Thanks. I'm in Edinburgh, about 1 mile from the coast. I have a south facing front garden and a north facing back garden. The back garden seems ok shelter-wise, it has plenty of walls/fencing and 2 storey terraced buildings.

Oooh, I like wildflowers like foxglove and poppies. I have a pack of mixed wildflower seeds already actually which I was planning to try in spring so that's good to hear they might self-seed and come back every year.

I believe we have squirrels, rats and foxes around here. Albeit my cat is probably scaring them off, he's a rescued stray and still young and feisty! No deer or anything!

Like you I want low maintenance & wildlife friendly, so have got mostly perennials with a few hardy annuals.
How much shade do you get in your back garden?

I have a south-facing front garden, which is tiny & planted with perennials & herbs: Lavender, roses, thyme, oregano, marjoram, salvia’s, spring & summer bulbs, star jasmine & chiosa.
My back garden is longish & not overshot the sides so parts of it are all facing (back is south facing, parts are west facing, east facing & north facing) so you have to plant for the conditions. It’s all experimenting - I’ve lost some plants & other have thrived.

That's a lovely spot for it.

With me, I would be thinking for quite a long time about a situation like that, before choosing plants. You have a bunch of stuff going on there.

I grew up on the West cost of Scotland, so I have some idea of what your climate is like, but it's a bit different from mine still. I live down south now, so again, hugely different.

Maybe I could try to figure it out a bit?

If you are in Edinburgh, then you are going to have:

1. enough rain to sustain life, but not constant bucketing rain. That's good.

It is good, because drought makes it really hard to germinate and sustain stuff, and saturated ground is also a problem. Having tons of rain like in Glasgow also means a lot of cloud which reduces your hours of sunshine, so being in Edinburgh is good in many ways. You are getting enough rain to help seeds germinate and keep plants going but not enough to cause things to rot probably. That's good.

2. you're pretty likely to get sub-zero temperatures each winter, so you want to have hardy stuff, or stuff you can bring indoors or into a greenhouse or similar when it's cold.

3. Your back garden is north facing so in the shadow of the house it's going to be colder and darker, so in a spot like that, you're probably looking at growing a bunch of shade-loving plants like ferns, and they could be really really really good ones because you have perfect conditions.

4. Your front garden is south facing so you have a sun trap there.

5. The really big deal in your situation is how much of your year you are getting temperatures above 14C. It is above 14C that plants really start to grow. That's when people have to start mowing their lawns.

I would guess that in a good year you are above 14C from about the start of June to the end of August. Would that be right? That's a growing period of 8 weeks. In a dud year, which I know does happen, things might not get really above 15 or 20 for long. I had a bunch of years like that growing up. It's a good idea to plan for years like that, so you still have a beautiful summer garden. In those years, you're going to be really happy to have a few plants that thrive like that. That might be things like Desfontainia spinosa. Maybe a lovely paeony or two.

If you want nice annuals, you would have a much better chance if you could start them indoors or under glass. Is that a possibility? Or you can buy little plants pre-grown from places like Thompson and Morgan, and put them in already at flowering size when the frosts are finished (1st June probably where you are.).

I would guess you could grow really cracking roses in your front garden if you don't get deer coming along to eat them.

Does that help a bit as a start?

Have you tried watching the Beechgrove Garden. They are amazing at teaching the real skill and science of gardening.

I live down south now and we have tons of sun but no rain. A dud year for us is one where so little rain falls that the lawn turns completely brown and cracks. We have quite a lot of those. About three years ago, our heatwave hit 42C and I lost a lot of plants because they just got toasted. The conditions are so different in different parts of the British Isles. I find it really exciting trying to figure them out and work out which plants will love a certain area.

Thank you for giving us this puzzle to work out.

Foxgloves and poppies will be perfect. Generally the kind of wildflowers that live in wooded glades would be fantastic in your back garden. Bluebells are good too. If you like wild garlic, it would grow like the clappers.

Wood anemonaes are lovely. The best flower bulbs I ever get are always from this company https://www.dutchbulbs.co.uk/.

It might be really worth a visit to the fern house at the Edinburgh botanic gardens. The regal ferns can look amazing and would work well in your back garden.

Actually a visit to the whole of the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens might be good, since anything that they can grow should also grow where you are.

Squirrels, rats and foxes are interesting in the following ways:

Foxes will move pots around in your garden. The fox here throws my potted plants in the pond quite regularly.

Rats will climb up to take fruit, but that is all.

Squirrels are no trouble.

Deer are the worst, so it's good that you don't have any. They will eat rose bushes right to the ground in a single sitting. #snack

Gosh, you guys are so lovely and helpful, thanks!

@APurpleSquirrel there are definitely some pretty shaded bits in my garden

@LightsDifficulty thanks so much, great ideas, yes I covet a greenhouse - the chilli plant on my southfacing windowsill has grown 1 chilli already! Not bad for 50p from B&Q! Indeed, I have a renewed interest in the Botanic Gardens all of a sudden albeit sadly their hothouses are closed for a few years for refurb! I always liked to visit the giant cactii!

What I don't understand, especially when I go round the garden centre is...stuff that flowers for one season only...

Because it dies I can buy more!

Honestly buying plants is a pleasure in life, I experiment each year with my pots - I've run out of garden to buy any more perennials

Don't grow foxgloves if you have a cat - they are very toxic to cats (not just the pollen but all the parts of the plant).

We have 'californian poppies' which self seed everywhere and the bees love them. I also have big oriental poppies which only grew leaves for 2 years and just when I was about to dig them up we had masses of flowers!

If you grow bulbs or plants in pots you need to refresh the soil annually otherwise your perennials will run out of nutrients and won't flower or maybe even not shoot at all.

@SleepingisanArt noted on foxgloves, thanks!

Following this as we have a new garden, very similar sounding to yours and not far from Edinburgh.

Our great success this year has been Rudbeckia, so that would be my suggestion 😌

Our trailing nasturtiums this year were amazing!

Bought as seeds one year and then every year they self seed and multiply and this year went into over drive! They are still going!

Incredible value for money and such a lovely long lasting vibrant display.

Lilies are poisonous to cats and dogs but especially cats. Annuals are great fillers when you want a splash of colour. You can plant bulbs now and top with pansies or viola in the ground or in pots. The bulbs will push up through the violas in the spring giving months of colour. The pansies will look sad in the depths of winter but should perk up later.

Nothing quite beats the colour and floral power of annuals.

I am a perennial gardener myself. Trying to learn the art of annuals more recently. Plants are fascinating.

Yes - you compost annuals. You buy them as they aren’t available as perennials and people like them to cut as flowers or in pots etc.

A good alternative which I love is Erigeron. It’s a lower habit daisy like plant - looks gorgeous in pots and in beds. It also drops loads of seeds which you can make new free plants from. You cut it back hard in the Autumn and leave it be. I also like Guara - a beautiful perennial which flowers for ages. The list of lovely perennials is endless. Just find the right one for your soil and position. They do need maintenance though - generally need cutting back hard for the next growing season.

I've had both foxgloves and cats in my garden for decades with no issues at all.

The big one to avoid if you have cats is lilies. They don't even have to nibble on them. All a cat needs to do is brush past a lily plant and get pollen on its fur, then have a wash later on.

For bulbs I use Peter Nyssen. Get naturalising ones like Wild (species) tulips, bluebells, wild garlic, daffodils, Camassia and you won't have to keep buying (tulips are quite expensive as grey last one one year of peak blooms)

Interesting. I am not sure cats are going to eat foxgloves or lillies though?

Like I said, cats don't have to actually eat lilies. It is the pollen. If they walk past a lily and get pollen on their fur, they ingest it when they have a wash. The pollen is extremely toxic to cats and causes organ failure and possibly death. It also applies if you have lilies in a vase in the house.

I have quite a lot that is one season only.

in my case it’s because I like eating it!

basil is one season only, as are a few herbs.

i also grow tomatoes, courgettes and peppers.