A great landscape design includes both annuals and perennials. The combination of hearty, yearlong plants and bright, seasonal flowers creates a balanced look within your landscaping beds.
Knowing the difference between your annuals and perennials will aid you in maintaining their health and help your landscape to look the best it can.
Annuals
Annuals live for one growing season and do not return. Their lifecycle, within a single season, includes sprouting, flowering, seeding, and then dying. These flowers bloom all season long and usually add brilliant splashes of color to your property.
Plant them in bunches and try different options each year for a unique look to your landscape design. Some popular annuals in the Palmetto, Parrish, and Bradenton, FL areas include zinnias, marigolds, and impatiens.
Caring For Your Annuals
Annual plants require moist soil and a water-soluble fertilizer to survive. Deadheading the blooms throughout the season is necessary to keep them flowering the entire time. Warm-season annuals grow best in the summer. Since Florida usually has two growing seasons, there are additional annuals that grow well during the winter months.
Perennials
Every spring, for approximately three or more years, perennials re-grow. The difference between perennials and annuals is simply in their genetics. You can plant perennials in your landscape from bulbs, seeds, or as young plants from a nursery, like our nursery at Three Seasons.
TIP: If you are planning to grow perennials from bulbs, make sure to plant them the fall prior in order to get a spring bloom.
You will find that perennials have a shorter bloom period than annuals, so it is wise to plan a variety of perennials in your yard that bloom at various times of the year. This can help your landscape design maintain constant color from spring to autumn. Common perennials include peonies, roses, daylilies, and mums.
TIP: Contact us to find out which perennials are the most popular and grow the best in Bradenton’s weather conditions.
Caring For Your Perennials
Perennials can be planted in moist or dry soil, depending on the needs of the plant itself. Young perennials require extra attention and lots of moisture to establish roots. These plants also require feeding once a year from the proper fertilizer, as well as mulching, to keep the area moist, temperate, and weed-free.
Plan Your Space Wisely
Choosing annuals and perennials that complement one another well, can be a difficult task for an amateur gardener. Call Three Seasons, at 941-748-4613 to have us plan and plant the annuals and perennials for your landscaping beds in a way that will keep them looking their best throughout the seasons.