Gardeners are making the mad dash for flats and containers filled with flowering annuals to perk up pots and mingle with perennials in beds and borders. Annuals are deliriously colorful, and gardeners can choose from any color in the rainbow. There's even a pansy so dark it qualifies as black. Foliage is an added bonus.
Annuals are reliable, blooming throughout the summer months in almost dizzying succession.
Plus the versatility of annuals can't be beat. Although annuals proliferate as bedding plants, direct seeding is the preferred method for planting some annuals, like cosmos, cleome and zinnias. Sow your seeds in a natural, free-spirited way. Prepare your seed bed, then take a handful of seeds and sprinkle them randomly over the soil. Tiny seeds, such as portulaca or petunia, can be mixed with a bit of sand or vermiculite, making them easier to cast evenly over the ground.