For that riot of colours

It's that time of year again! As the weather begins to cool down, the roundabouts and gardens are already awash with colours and fragrance of annuals.

There's plenty of gardening to be done now, and it is encouraging to know whatever flowering annuals you plant now will soon explode into blooms, filling your borders, beds and containers with vibrant colours.

Annuals are indispensable for adding an instant splash of exciting colours to any garden — be it a small balcony garden or a big yard.

Easy to grow and relatively cheap, annuals offer an astonishing variety colours and forms of flowers, which bloom for most of the growing season.

You can plant them in different combinations in containers, window boxes, hanging baskets or in mixed borders.

These versatile plants offer you a chance to choose your colour palette and experiment with different shades, heights and textures in your garden.

And if you are not happy with the results, you can do things differently next year.

As opposed to perennials, annuals live only for a season, during which they grow, flower and produce seeds.

However, because they complete their lifecycle in a short span of time, you have to plant them afresh every year, which involves some effort and expenditure.

Besides, many annuals require the removal of dead flower-heads on a weekly basis to promote continuous bloom.

Planting options

All gardens have troublesome spots with microclimate suited to only a limited range of tolerant plants.

For instance, the north is the shadiest side of the garden, where only annuals that prefer shade and cooler climate can be grown to their best advantage.

Shade-loving annuals such as impatience, coleus, begonias etc., will perform well in areas offering plenty of shade and adequate moisture.

On the other hand, an east-facing garden with morning sun and afternoon shade is suitable for growing species such as pansies, carnations etc., that thrive in partial sun but prefer cooler temperature.

The flowering tobacco (nicotiana) that produces fragrant tubular flowers in white, crimson or dusky pink does particularly well in partial sun.

For the south and the west side of the garden, where the sunshine is at its peak during afternoons and the heat can be intense unless shaded by trees or shrubs, you must take care to select plants that can take a beating from the relentless heat in the UAE.

Fortunately, we now have several varieties and cultivars of hardy annuals that thrive in full sun — for instance, marigold, zinnia, petunia, periwinkle, nasturtium, salvia, phlox, gazania etc., are some of the most heat-tolerant annuals that soak up the sun and produce abundant blooms.

However, each garden is unique and you need to experiment with different plantings to find out which particular species are best suited to each part of your garden. Half the fun of gardening, after all, is in trying new things.

The blooming season in your garden can be extended if you plan ahead and plant cool season annuals such as carnations, pansies, snapdragons etc., early in the season.

Heat-tolerant species such as marigold, zinnia etc., will continue to bloom till early summer, whereas rugged annuals such as periwinkle, portulaca and gazania will produce abundant blooms even at the peak of summer.

Designer beds

Planning the composition of annual beds is exciting because there is so much to choose from. You can design 'theme beds' for bold colour impact.

You can have beds devoted to a single species, including petunias, dianthus, marigold, cockscomb etc., or mix different species to create pleasing contrasts.

Shades which naturally blend with each other such as white, pink and mauve will be easy on the eye, but for something more daring, why not combine yellow marigolds with purple petunias or yellow dwarf cosmos with red salvia?

A bed devoted to fragrant annuals such as carnations, stocks, petunias, sweet alyssum, sweet pea, nicotiana etc., will fill your garden with delicious scents.

Or you can have a unique bed devoted to edible ornamentals such as ornamental bell peppers and miniature tomatoes.

In a place like the UAE, where it is always desirable to have a garden that conserves water, a bed of drought-tolerant species such as portulaca, trailing ice plant, periwinkle, gazania, amaranthus, and pennisetum will outshine all other beds even in the hottest weather.

Tall plants such as salvia, cosmos, hollyhocks, cannas, periwinkle etc can be used as attractive vertical accents to edge a border of annual flowers.
Annuals such as ageratum or sweet alyssum, available in shades of blue, lavender and white are also excellent edging plants that help to tie together the annual borders.

With limitless possibilities offered by unlimited varieties of annuals, your only limit while designing annual flower beds is your imagination.