Annuals are flowers and plants which only grow for one season, then they die off and must be replanted again by seed or starter plants the next year. Some annuals create seeds though, which will drop to the ground and naturally start sprouting on their own the following year, but many must be purchased again if you want to have those flowers blooming in your yard and garden again each year.

Annuals are a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to create beautiful color in your yard and garden in the springtime. Many annuals can be purchased in small four or six inch starter pots, and they'll often already have flowers blooming when you buy them. Buying them this way allows you to take them home, put them into the ground or into pots and containers, and have an instant blooming garden right from the start.

By planting blooming annual flowers along your walkway for instance, or into a new garden bed or container, you'll have instant color and beauty in your yard as early in the season as you'd like.

Most annuals are fairly easy to plant, take care of, and grow. Most of them also come in a wide variety of flower color selections too. Some annuals are particularly hardy through drought and strong sunlight, and some actually continuously bloom from spring through summer and into late fall too. These types of annuals tend to be the most pleasing to gardeners, because there is little work needed to keep their garden look fresh and colorful almost all year round.

Vinca flowers for instance, look a little like Pansies and they come in a huge variety of flower colors. You can buy vincas which have solid colored flower petals and blooms, or ones which have variagated colors on the flowers instead. The leaves of this plant are green and glossy, but it does extremely well in high heat and direct, strong sunlight areas.

Vinca's often grow to about ten or twelve inches high, and when you pluck the expended buds off of them regularly, they bloom in some areas for months on end. In Zone 7B for instance, it's not uncommon to see Vinca's in bloom from March through September or October.

Another easy growing annual that's a favorite of most gardeners is the Pansy. This plant also has glossy green leaves and many different flower colors to choose from. The flowers themselves almost look like little faces with the way they're colored too.

Morning Glories are another annual plant in most areas, and these also produce profusive flower blooms for months on end. As long as the roots of the Morning Glory vines are kept moist and out of direct, hot sunlight, these plants will climb all over a trellis, fence, and even bushes too.

Morning Glory vines create a tight spiral pattern when they're climbing, so you need to give them small things to grab onto. A trellis with wide wooden slats is too large for the tight spirals to get around easily, but a chainlink fence is ideal. You can even use string or thin twine for the vines to wrap around and climb.

Tags: Annuals, Blue Picotee, Morning Glory

Cactus gardens are something many gardener's feel are only used in the desert southwestern part of the United States. And many people who are unfamiliar with cactus plants, assume they're just an ugly, prickly, almost alien looking thing that crops up in the hottest and dryest parts of the world.

Cactus plants do grow wild in the desert southwest, and they do thrive in extreme heat and drought conditions. But this is one of the things that makes them so wonderful to use in a home garden. You see, anyone unfamiliar with cactus plants doesn't usually know that they produce some beautiful flowers too. In fact, most cactus plants produce flowers, and most of the plants also put on a wonderful color display throughout the year too.

Most flower blooms on cactus plants resemble more cultured and cultivated plants too. Not only are the flower buds themselves similar in shape to other types of plant flowers, but you'll find a wide variety of colors available for the cactus flowers too.

A prickly pear cactus for instance, can create flower blooms which look a bit like tulips or roses. You might see some that are peach and white, or some that are solid red. And these cactus plants are beautiful with large flowers sticking up on each sharp spine. Not only do these cactus plants create flower blooms though, the Prickly Pear cactus also changes color throughout the year. Sometimes it's a pale green color, and sometimes it will turn pink. Still other times you'll see the cactus pads turn a deep purple color too.

Prickly pear cactus are also edible, much like most cactus plants are actually, and it produces fruit pods in addition to flowers throughout the year. Both the fruit and the cactus pads can be eaten. Some people fry them with butter, while others will make cactus jelly and jam from the pads.

There are many cactus plants which grow quite tall - over 15 feet in some cases - and there are plenty which grow small as well. Most will spread themselves out over time though too, so you have to be careful not to plant them too closely when creating a cactus garden.

Cactus plants usually only need about an inch of water every one to three months, so watering - or not watering rather - a cactus garden is one of the most difficult things for gardeners to accept. If you water a cactus garden too much though, the plants will actually die off. Instead, you have to make sure the cactus stay quite dry. If you live in an area that gets regular rain, you may even have to create a container based cactus garden so that you can move them to a dry spot while it's raining outside.

Tags: Cacti, Cactus Gardening, Prickly pear cactus

Shade gardening is a type of gardening many new gardeners don't think of, because most seem to think that in order to have a beautiful blooming garden, you need to put plants in areas that get some sunlight. In fact though, there are some shade loving plants that are quite beautiful, and most of them create blooms of some kind or other as well. Many shade loving plants also tend to have beautiful colors and textures on their leaves and stalks as well, which helps bring beauty and interest to a previously drab, dark or boring area of your yard.

Shade gardening is not difficult at all, but it can seem a little tricky at first. And this is because there are varying levels of shade at any given time of the day. Some areas of your yard for instance, may have filtered sunlight throughout most of the day instead of full shade. Other areas may seem to never see sun at all, and still others may have deep shade for most of the day, with bright direct sunlight for a small part of the day too. And these variations in the amount of sun or shade a given part of your yard has will determine the success or failure of your shade garden.

There are some shade loving plants which cannot tolerate any direct sun for instance, but they'll do just fine with a bit of filtered sunlight each day. Other shade loving plants though, prefer to grow in full, deep, dark shade all the time.

The best plants to put into a shady area of your yard and garden though, are called Hostas. These plants come in a wide variety of textures, colors, and sizes. Most of them create beautiful blooms too, but possibly one of the most interesting things about them is how they create such a wonderful display of color even when they don't have any flowers in bloom.

Hostas are perennial plants, which means they live for many years. In fact, these plants actually get more beautiful as they age too, because they tend to create gorgeous clumps of color that keep expanding and growing each year. Many types of hostas also show even more color as they get older too.

Hosta plants range from very small to very large, and though most will do just fine in full, deep, dark shade, they tend to thrive best when they have at least a little morning sun, or some filtered sunlight throughout the day. Hostas will also grow quite well in containers too, so feel free to plant some for sprucing up the inside of your home, or the patio and porch areas too.

Tags: Shade Gardening