Zone 9 Fall/Winter Annuals

Hi,
I live in Central FL on the east coast. This is the first year I have a small garden dedicated to flowers. It is a full sun garden. During the spring/summer I used a wildflower seed mix and had a beautiful and plush garden all season. Some of the plants still look healthy and are producing flowers, but I need to fill in some of the bare spots. Since I have never planted a fall/winter flower garden in this zone I am not sure what annuals will give me the most bang for my buck.
Any suggestions?

Thank you

Last year I grew Phlox and Snapdragons from seed and they bloomed all winter...even the freezes we had did not bother them. Petunias and Pansies also grow well here during the cooler months.

Iceland poppies, perhaps? I've seen them used as late winter bedding in Santa Barbara, CA. The clouds of bright thin-petaled flowers are spirit-lifters, like a hot-air balloon festival.

Pansies will bloom on warm winter days all the way to Philadelphia, tolerating freezes in between.

Small-flowered multiflora petunias kept blooming for me until a hard frost, which this year arrived in late December, so they should do all winter for Florida. Verbena, fertilized and deadheaded, kept putting up isolated flower clusters to the end.

Some things that wouldn't bloom for me in the cool short days of NYC November and December: dwarf morning glory (Convolvolus tricolor 'Ensign Mixed'), which generated long, leafy stems but no new flowers after the equinox; Calibrachoa (million bells), which likewise seemed to go on a blooming vacation when fall began. I don't know whether they keep blooming in Florida, where the day length varies a bit less than here, and whether they might have continued in genuine full sun. (I don't think anywhere in my yard, front or back, gets 6 hours of sun in winter. The shadow of the house eats the whole backyard by 2 PM.)

Iceland poppies perform poorly here in Florida.

I use Alyssum, Pansies, Lobelia, Pelargonium (geranium), Dianthus, Ganzia, Linaria, Impatiens (cover during frost), annual Phlox, Snapdragon, Pentas, Delphinium, Verbena, Helichyrsum (Licorice plant), Petunia, Osteosprumum, some of the Salvias.....

Linaria

Delphnium, geraniums & Alyssum>

Plants>

Osteospurmum is a perennial for me, but, no summer bloom.

I admire your border choices! It makes sense that Iceland poppies would have trouble with Florida humidity.

The edging lobelia are beautiful. I've noticed that new lobelia seedlings from summer and fall will try to start blooming in late fall if the weather holds. It held so long this year I was getting bloom on reseeding annuals -- some beautiful alyssum (Lobularia) seedlings blooming in my lawn from seeds dropped by overhanging plants.

Snapdragons and delphiniums are glorious in your pictures. That's a beautiful osteospermum, too. Can you propagate it by cuttings?

Iceland poppies have a problem with our heat. We have winter days near 80*, they suffer and we have soil diseases they are not resistant too.

Osteospermum is easy from seed or starter plants from the nursery. I haven't tried them from cuttings because it is too time consuming. I have had them reseed.

This winter I had Gazania reseed themselves.

I have a Poppie about to bloom, but they are certainly a challenge here.

I have had luck with http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54125/ and no luck with Iceland Poppy.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Our winter was so mild my annuals are still blooming from last year. Now to think about spring plantings :-)

We had a real tropical winter this year. Some plants really liked it, some didn't (like Lobelia).

It was too warm for my tastes.

It was a good winter for Fressia laxa
tropical vines
straw flowers and such

I'll have to try Strawflowers in the winter. I grew them in the summer a couple of years ago and they did not do well. Will they survive a freeze?

Light frost yes, hard freeze no.

Strawflowers are one of my favorites, my Dad planted them and it did well back in Europe, but the temp was more like Tennesie here, warm Summers and hard Winters. I have hard time growing them, but I ordered some from seeds, neon color, somthing like yours, Dale. I must say, you have a beutiful garden, all my favorite colors. Etelka