Add Color Quickly To Your Garden

Get The Most Out Of Annuals, If Only For A Season

(CBS)  Annuals are beautiful flowers that last just one season, but they provide tons of color at affordable prices. The Early Show's gardening guru Charlie Dimmock shows how to get the most out of them.

Technically, Dimmock explains, an annual is a plant that germinates from seed, grows flowers, sets seed, and dies all in one season. But gardeners also use the term to describe any plant that grows and flowers in a single season, a definition that includes tender perennials killed by frost at the end of the season.

Dimmock says gardeners turn to annuals to provide a full and fantastic effect for immediate gratification. Besides being relatively cheap and fresh, they are great to plant in between the slow-growing shrubs or to fill in empty spaces until the perennials grow up.

Here is Dimmock's advice when planting annuals:

• Annuals should be planted in blocks for the most effective look.
  
  
• Always consider the height, with the tallest at the back, mediums in the middle and the shortest at the front. In a round garden plot, put the tallest plants in the middle, and work the shorter ones to the edge. If you must put a taller one in front, ensure that it is a transparent and lacy plant.
  
  
• Look for strong contrasts in one area, or more subtle groupings in another. Dimmock demonstrates how to arrange plants in swathes of color or texture, making sure that there is always a contrast in either shape, texture or color in adjacent groups.
  
  
• Annuals require sunlight (though some do OK in shade) and rich moisture-retentive soil, with organic matter dug into it. They are half-hardy, and will need to be protected if there is a chance of frost. They can be covered with a fleece or individual plastic bottles.
  
  
• Annuals need to be fed every two weeks, deadheaded regularly and watered frequently. They should last through the entire growing season, provided you continue to look after them.

Here are the annuals Dimmock suggests to plant in pots, baskets or in garden beds:

Half-hardy summer annuals: ageratum, impatiens (busy lizzie), cosmos, morning glory, lobelia, nicotiana.

Hardy annuals: marigolds, nasturtians, sweet peas, and sunflowers.

If you are growing them from seed, they wil produce masses of flowers within two to three months of the seed being sown, giving you a good couple of months of color for comparitively little money and effort.

Annuals that thrive in the shade are impatiens, fuschia and lobelia.