Easy to grow annuals can mean the difference between a relaxing gardening experience and a season-long struggle. Nothing beats flowering annual plants for ease-of-care and long-lasting color in your garden.
Annuals are versatile too, they can be used to fill up a garden bed, spice up a perennial border, or become the colorful star in pots and window boxes.
Here are Ten Easy to Grow Annuals that You are Going to Love!
They’re especially easy to grow and will bring beauty to your garden all season long, right up to the first frost.
1. Salvia
A favorite of butterflies and hummingbirds! But best of all salvia is one of the most heat and drought tolerant of all the annuals. This is another great selection for anyone who wants reliable color with the least amount of effort.
2. Marigolds
A familiar garden favorite that can be grown from seed or transplants. Marigolds come in shades from yellow to orange to dark brown. These easy to grow annuals are drought tolerant, thrive in poor soil, and can withstand sun or partial shade. Bonus: Marigold plants are a natural pest repellent. Plant them around your vegetables to help keep common pests at bay.
3. Wax Begonias
Wax begonia blooms all summer long producing delicate small flowers in shades of red, white, pink, and bicolors. These versatile beauties perform equally well in shade and sun. Grow them in garden beds, containers, and hanging baskets.
4. Impatiens
An easy to grow annual best known for its ability to bring color to shady areas. These garden favorites will brighten the shadowy spaces of your deck or garden beds with blooms that last all summer long. Perfect for growing in containers, including hanging baskets for a shady porch or balcony.
5. Lobelia
Consider pairing your impatiens with lobelia. This is another annual that thrives in shady spaces and does well in both, containers and in the garden. This lobelia produces masses of blue, purple, or white flowers, perfect for cascading from a planter, hanging basket or adding all-season color to a perennial bed.
6. Sunflower
Sunflowers have everything the gardener looks for in a great easy to grow annual plant: They come in a variety of heights, colors, and blooming times. They grow in any sunny location from seeds or transplants. And after their initial showy flowers have faded, the seed heads can be left on the plant to serve double duty as a winter garden feature and a natural bird feeder.
7. Vinca
The colorful vinca looks and behaves a lot like impatiens, with one important difference: vincas prefer full sun and hot weather. These tough beauties will keep blooming even in periods of drought. An especially good selection for hot areas bordered by pavement.
8. Moss Rose
Another reliable performer in hot, dry conditions. Moss rose produces a rainbow of blooms in shades of red, pink, purple, yellow, orange, and white all season long; right up to frost. The unusual, spiky, succulent foliage adds great texture. Use moss rose in the garden, cascading over the side of a planter, or in a hanging basket.
9. Thai Basil
One of the many annual herbs that works double-duty. This basil’s attractive foliage and deep purple stems and flowers provide a rich accent color in the landscape and it can also be harvested as needed for use in cooking. Thai Basil is especially popular for flavoring Indian and Asian dishes. Bonus: the fragrant foliage adds a wonderful scent to the garden, or when grown in containers on a deck, balcony or patio.
10. Zinnias
Easy annuals to grow from seed or purchased as plants. Zinnias come in all heights and colors and they grow well in sun and partial shade. If regularly deadheaded or picked for bouquets, zinnias will bloom from early summer through fall.
All ten of these easy to grow annuals are super easy to care for and you can count on them to provide continuous color and interest all over your garden. With selections available for sun or shade you can use them in rock gardens, containers, hanging baskets, and garden beds to make this one of your easiest gardening seasons ever!
