Ephemerals Are very short-lived, growing from seed, blooming and dying within a few weeks. However, since this may happen several times in the same season, ephemerals can spread quite rapidly. Many desert plants and weeds such as groundsel are ephemerals. The word 'annual' means yearly, and annuals are plants that grow from seed, flower, disperse their seeds and die in a single growing season. Most delphiniums are annuals, so are some herbs, and peas and cereals.
Biennials Live for two years.
In the first summer, the young plant grows a ring of leaves on an underground food store such as a bulb or taproot. The food store sustains it through the winter and in the spring sends up a stem that flowers in the summer. Foxgloves are biennials, as are many vegetables. Perennials Live for a number of years, surviving through the winters, like biennials, on food from an underground food store such as a bulb. Wallflowers, chrysanthemums, Michaelmas daisies and many other garden flowers are perennials.