Show your Summer Annual Blooms

As much as I love my perennials....I can hardly wait to start planting my ever faithful annuals!
It's a little early yet.....but we can dream!

Here's a photo from the Zinnia bed and a drop in dinner guest!

'King Red' Zinnias and 'Grandpa Ott' Morning Glories.

Mexican Sunflower 'Tithonia Torch' and a beautiful friend!

Up close and personal !

Nice granny. I love zinnias.

Bachelor buttons are a must for blue fans

Cosmos have a lot of variation and self seed for me.

Calendula 'Sherbet Fizz'

Yellow and purple zinnia mix

Calendula 'Touch or Red'

Scarlet Flame zinnia

Gotta have coleus

Didn't like these - Tri colored Daisy

Here's my coleus. I had 2 containers, one on either side of my front steps.

Sharon

Hi al......your annual photos are so pretty! You're right about the bachelor buttons....what's a Summer garden without bachelor buttons?!! Now I kind of like that Tri colored Daisy! Did you grow that from seed?
I tried Calundulas one year, but didn't have too much success with them...maybe I'll give them another try this year, especially after seeing yours.

Sharon, I like coleus, too! The deep red ones with the ruffled edges are my favorites. I can't remember the name of them, but I think I kept the little plant marker that came with the six pack. By the end of Summer, they were just stunning....I'm going to plant them again this year!
One year, I planted nothing but different colored coleus in one of my flowerbeds and it was just awesome!

Here is my bed of Larkspur....plant the seeds once....your set for life !!

The tri colored daisy flowered really late for me is what I didn't like.
Calendulas have always done great for me in pots and in the ground.

Nice coleus Sharon.

annual poppies

Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana)

Sunflowers

Mimosa - Sensitive Plant

Persian Shield

Thanks, Al. I really like your coleus, too.

Granny, your larkspur are stunning. I've always shied away from growing them. Somehow I've been under the impression that they were difficult to grow. Glad to learn that I've been mistaken.

Jmorth, I didn't think mimosa and persian shield grew in our zone. Do you grow them as annuals? Or do you bring them in for the winter? I especially like mimosas -- the drink too -- hee hee (orange juice and champagne)

Sharon

Yes, those two are grown as annuals. The mimosa self-seeds most years. I wasn't familiar with the drink designation, we'll have to try it...
The Persian Shield is propagated by cuttings into water, then soil and grown under fluorescent lights in the basement over winter.
Both grow exceedingly well outside through the summer here.
Actually 4 of the 5 listed are pretty good self-sowers outside.

jmorth........hi....I've never tried to grow a Mimosa (Sensitive Plant). Is it true what they say in the catalogs, that the leaves will shrink together if touched? If it is....I've definately got to try one this year!

That's what they do. Kids really like them.
If I can find any seed laying around I'd gladly send some. In most years they self-seed so I may not have gathered any.

Here's one that was new to me last year - Agrostemma 'Milas' (Corncockle) combined with a Clarkia or Godetia in front - I'm still unclear what the proper name is for them.

Both of them bloom very early, with the Bachelor's Buttons, and appear to be able to take severe freezes...last year to 23 degrees.

Suzy

Here is Calendula -- a yellow one with Lunaria in maroon and gold. I wish I had planted an orange Calendula there instead.

Both of these also bloom with the Bachelor's Buttons and cantake a lof of cold (also down to 23 degrees last year)

Here is Big Daddy Petunia and Alyssum -- both very easy from seed. The Alyssum can take a great deal of cold, really down to 20 degrees, but the petunias can only take a couple of degrees.

I actually mostly grow annuals...I prefer them to perennials for the most part.

This is my version of the annual chrysanthemum BigCityAl posted above...His flower is a lot nicer, but this is still one of my favorites. This photo was from July 3rd, and the seed was wintersown, but I can see how he isn't impressed with the early bloom.

I must say the flowers in the photo were a lot better looking in person...it was really one of my favorite things in the garden last year. The oppies were really little, about 13-14" tall and ever so petite.

Jmorth, I meant to ask what kind of Nicotiana that was -- it looks different from most I've seen.

This is a double poppy. I actually preferred the singles

The flowering Tobacco was started originally with a fairly tall variety named 'Sensation'; it's been self-seeding for years. It's like a magnet for Hummingbird Moths during late summer/early fall.
The pic herewith is another Nicotiana variety called 'Tinkerbell'.

Here's a couple more annual pics I came across...
Calibrachoa or Million Bells

Nasturtium

Annual - Cypress Vine, another self-seeder.

An annual I loved this year was Angelonia ~ had it in lavender, white and my favorite (on the right)... purple!

On the left, Celosia spicata in burgundy with the foliage even reflecting the color.

These photos of all your annuals are SO beautiful !!.....it's 12 degrees right now and one of the things that keeps me going is the thought of Spring planting!

Please keep them coming.....even if it's perrinials you put in with your annuals.

Here is a photo that my 7 year old grand-daughter loves .....she thinks it's the butterfly's bed!!!!!!!!

jmorth........you've got a deal!!......my grandkids will love that plant! Since I showed them how to find the 'little bunnies' in the Larkspur blooms, they run to find them in the Larkspur every year now when they are in bloom.

Sharon....you really should give the Larkspur another try this year. Just give them full sun and forget about them. But be warned.......they reseed easily!
Larkspur are sometimes called the annual form of Delphiniums. I have tried to grow Delphiniums, but they always succumb to the humid Summers we have here in Missouri. Since the Larkspur reseed so readily.....it keeps me happy!!

Hi podster!.......that photo of yours is gorgeous!! Glad you joined us here!

Here's another shot of the 'Tithonia Torch' bed.

Yvonne's salvia

Karen

Rudbeckia Prarie Sun

Karen

This 'n that

Karen

Love all the photos! I grew to love those zinnias last summer and now I can't have enough!

Those are my Z. Zowie's, orange magellans and red Benary's Giants.

So fun to look at all these pics of the summer flowers!