Annuals

“Annuals provide…a sense of accidental beauty, a lightening of the heart that comes because beauty is brief.”—Wayne Winterrowd

Nicotiana mutabilis.

Perennial plants return each year, providing a structure and sense of continuity to our gardens. Peonies, irises, echinacea, and others all have their periods of showiness, some quite brief. Annuals are added, once the season warms up, as a source of continual color.

An annual is a plant whose life cycle is completed in one growing season; it germinates from seed, develops quickly over the summer, and dies in the fall. To insure their survival through their progeny, annuals flower and flower attempting to produce seeds. It is important for the gardener to deadhead many plants so that they don’t form seeds and fade away because their job is done. Annual plants are immigrants from six of the seven continents (none from Antarctica). I will focus on plants that originated south of the Rio Grande River.

Jean Nicot, a French diplomat who sent seeds of tobacco plants to Queen Catherine de Medici, also gave his name to the genus Nicotiana. Tobacco leaves for smoking come from Nicotiana tabacum. N. rustica leaves are also a source for smoking and are valued in Native American rituals. Both of these tobacco plants have been used in ornamental gardens for their foliage and tubular flowers, but shorter and showier varieties are now available to add unique color, scent, and structure.

Nicotiana langsdorfii (photos above), a native of Brazil and Chile, is a staple in my garden, valued for its lime-green tubular blooms hanging on three-foot tall plants. The flower color of N. langsdorfii compliments all other hues in the garden and cut stems last a week in a vase.

Native to South America, Nicotiana alata, or jasmine tobacco, is an old-fashioned annual that perks up in the evening and at night, when its white flowers emit the scent of jasmine. Crosses between N. alata and other species have produced plants with flowers of beautiful colors that open during the day, but the scent has been lost.

Nicotiana mutabilis, from Brazil, forms a bushy, airy plant full of blooms that change from a pale to rosy pink as they age. The combination of shading in the flowering creates a stunning display that often weaves through neighboring plants.

The largest ornamental nicotiana is N. sylvestrus, a native of Argentina. From large basal leaves, a six-foot stalk emerges with tubular white five-inch bells hanging down. Often side shoots develop and one plant can become a towering presence from midsummer through the fall.

“We shall be magnificent in dahlias.”—Mary Russell Mitford

The first dahlia tubers brought from Mexico to Spain were thought to be a food to rival the potato, which had arrived from the New World as well. The blossoms became the more attractive part of the plant, and Empress Josephine created a trend in the nineteenth century, growing them at Malmaison. Dahlias are not technically annuals since most are grown from over-wintered tubers. But like annuals, they are a source of continual bloom.

DAHLIA. Cafe au lait.

Two of my favorite dahlias are ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ and ‘Café au Lait’ (photo above and below, on left). The Bishop has blood-red single blooms on a plant with almost black foliage. New varieties with similar foliage but different hues of bloom are sold as the ‘Bishop’s Children.’ ‘Café au Lait’ is a larger plant, and its flowers are luscious double confections of a milky coffee. Dahlias are perfect as cut flowers, either as an individual stem or a riot of color. The first hard frost in fall will turn dahlia plants into a black mush. Dig the tubers and store in a cool basement for bigger plants next season.

Mexico is the original home of zinnias, cosmos, and tithonias. Zinnias, named after Professor Johann Gottfried Zinn, are quick to grow from seed and may flower six weeks after germination. Z. augustifolia produces short mounds of white, orange, or rose pink. Z. elegans is the taller variety grown for cut flowers. Nurseries and seed catalogs often offer single colors such as green ‘Envy’ or individual colors of ‘Benares giants.’

Although it is a member of the aster family, Tithonia rotundifolia is referred to as the Mexican sunflower. It does achieve the height of a tall sunflower and has a similar composition. The cultivar ‘Torch’ has a bloom of fiery orange and ‘Acadian blend’ is a mixture of yellows and oranges. A three-foot version, ‘Goldfinger,’ lacks the impact of the towering tithonias. When using for cut flowers, dip the stem in boiling water or it will collapse and wilt.

Two cultivated species of cosmos are grown in many gardens. C. bipinnatus is traditionally tall with pink or white blooms. In recent years, new cultivars have been introduced. ‘Seashells’ has fluted petals; ‘Double click’ has pompom flowers; ‘Rubenza’ is a ruby red fading to rose pink. Two from last year are worth growing: ‘Xanthos’ has soft yellow blooms on a more compact plant. ‘Cupcake’ produces rounded little chalices of white or pink. Cosmos sulphureus has a denser, shorter habit with blooms in a range of hot colors. Cultivars have been developed with compact one-foot growth, while the species grows to thirty inches. Individual colors can be obtained in lemon yellow, rusty orange, and fiery red.

With all annuals it is helpful when buying plants to choose smaller seedlings rather than those that have begun to bloom in their cramped cell packs. Often roots become bound into a knotted mess and never break out of the tangle which causes the plant to struggle. Annuals may have a slow start, but by July they provide the garden with continual color, life, and ephemeral beauty.

“The charm of annuals is their light gaiety, as though they must make the most of their brief lives to be frivolous and pleasure-giving. They have no time to be austere and glum. They must always be youthful, because they have not time to grow old.”

—Vita Sackville-West

July, 2018