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Annuals and Perennials for the Garden

Choosing the right perennials and annuals for the flower garden can be a challenge. Rick Pudwell Director of Horticulture for Memphis Botanic Garden gives some tips on choosing and shows some examples of each.

Annuals are plants – usually grown from seed that live one season, set seed, and then die. Because they only live a short time, they tend to flower most of their lives. Perennials on the other hand are plants that live several years and usually only flower once a year at a specific time. If you deadhead perennials, they may produce another set of flowers later in the year.

You need to think about the conditions where you are going to plant – sun, shade, wet, dry – and pick a plant that will do well there. If you would like flowers blooming all year around, visit a nursery every month of the year and each time, pick a plant that is blooming. Some perennials even bloom in the winter. Proper soil preparation is important. Add organic material and get a soil test to see if you need to change the pH or other conditions for the plant.

If you are starting a garden, start small. Plant where the plants will be easy to water and maintain in the hot summer.

Rick shows a few examples of different plants.

Related Resources:
Growing Annual Flowers
Growing Annual Flowers: Planning, starting and caring for a garden
Growing Perennials
Gardening with Perennials
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  • Home
  • Watch
    • TV Schedule
    • Full Episodes Online
    • How-to and Informational
    • Questions and Answers
    • This Week in the Garden
    • Garden Notes
  • Garden Topic Collections
    • Apple Trees: How-to and Information
    • Peach Trees: How-to and Information
    • Tomatoes: How-to and Information
    • Square Foot Garden Blog
  • Resources
    • Soil Testing
    • Extension Publications
    • Gardening Resources
    • Blogs
    • Organic Gardening
    • Articles
    • Privacy
  • Guests
  • Contact Us
    • Ask a Gardening Gardening Question
  • Search