Annuals

ANNUALS

What are annuals? Simply put, annuals are plants that complete their full life cycle in a year. That may not actually be 12 months or 365 days because it depends on your climate. Actually, to be more accurate, they are the plants that you must re-plant every Spring. They propagate or reproduce from seeds. For the most part, they don't survive cold weather and most definitely don't survive Winter's cold and freezing temperatures. There are different "types" of annuals, though. Hardy annuals which can take some cold weather, half-hardy annuals, which are a bit more delicate, tender annuals, which can't take any harsh weather at all and can only be planted well past the last frost date after the soil has warmed up.

Many of our favorite flowers are annuals and also most of the vegetables we grow in our gardens.

Where I live in southwest Florida, I can get a much longer bloom time from these annual plants; however, none of them lasts a full year. They will eventually put out the last of their blooms, set seed to provide for future generations and then they simply die and must be replaced in the garden with new plantings.

written and maintained by Brier Ridge

Punta Gorda, Florida, USA