Plant and Garden Reference Information

Annual Plants

Flowers and plants that germinate, bloom, wilt, and die within the span of a year are referred to as annual plants. These plants are typically used in gardening as decorative additions adding color to the design. The reason that one would choose to grow annual plants is that they tend to have a longer bloom than perennials and will last throughout the primary growing season. In addition to decoration, many commercially grown vegetables are grown as annual plants including carrots, grains, celery, and tomatoes. However, it should be noted that these consumable plants are not annual plants by nature but are grown that way to facilitate industry need, many are actually biennials or perennials.

There are two major types of annual plants, summer and winter annuals. Summer annuals follow the standard growing season, flowering in late spring and early summer and lasting until fall or early winter. Winter annuals reserve their blooms until winter and tend to grow low to the ground using the snow cover to shield them from the extremely cold days, and blossom during warmer winter days.

List of annual plants