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Without exception, your first experience in gardening began with annuals. Think back. Your kindergarten teacher gives you an empty pint milk container with the top cut off and holes punched out in the bottom. She had you fill it with potting soil then she handed out a few seeds, Marigold, Petunia, Sunflower, Four O’clock or the like and you diligently watered and eagerly awaited for something to happen. Soon it did.
The seeds became a tiny plant. It grew and bloomed. Your mother perhaps allowed you to transplant into her flower bed and boy, did it thrive! It gave you tons of blossoms and got you hooked to gardening. Annuals are awesome! They are, after all so easy to grow, so readily available, super-blooming machines and virtually everybody’s favorites.
Then you grew up and learned of the amazing thing called perennials, plants which actually come back year after year without fail, without replanting and without much bother from you. Whoa, what a concept! You plant it once, it blooms for a bit but best of all, it stays alive during the winter and comes back again better than ever. You realized perennials are awesome too.
So annuals vs. perennials, which is better? What a silly question! You just said they are both awesome, didn’t you? They each have good points and bad. Let’s take a look at these more carefully.
Annuals are easy to grow from seed. So easy, in fact, you could plant a huge garden full of ever-blooming annuals with just one seed pack costing very little money. But you have to continually trim off the flowers to keep them blooming and they like to be fed and watered regularly. Then there’s the fact they don’t last forever. After a killing frost your annuals are no more, never to be seen again. They’re dead and you’ll have to do the whole planting thing over again if you want to see a garden full of that flower again.
But if you allow some of these annuals to go to seed they may self-sow. Some annuals do. You may get a garden full of flowers though being the wind will blow their seeds hither and dither there’s no telling where they may show up if at all. They may plant themselves as they choose and not to your liking. Alas, that is how it goes with annuals.
On the other hand is the perennial. There are so many to choose from, some for the shade, some for sun, some preferring wet areas, some liking it dry. There’s a perennial or two or twenty for every garden style, for every landscape, for every single gardener. Perennials can give you a continual show but only if you choose them wisely. You must chose some which bloom at different times throughout the season as they only bloom for a little while, some longer than others. Some repeat blooming but most don’t. If you plant several kinds of perennials in a big flower garden each will bloom in its time and then, hopefully, it will be replaced with another and then another giving you an endlessly changing flower bed. It never gets boring that way.
Most perennials have to be divided after a few years to keep them blooming and growing well. But that just gives you more plants for more flower beds and to share or swap with friends and neighbors. But the best thing about perennials is they make it through the winter and come back all on their own like an old, trusted friend coming back for a visit every spring time.
Knowing all this which is better for your garden, the annual or the perennial? The easy answer is both. They should be used in conjunction in every landscape. Perennials come and go and when they peter out annuals can be there for constant color. Yes, annuals die in winter but the perennial will start the season before annuals can be planted safely outdoors, extending the growing season. In truth, there is no annuals vs. perennials. They both are totally awesome.
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 For more amazing garden facts, a glimpse at an unfinished novel and amusing short stories come visit me at
http://www.helium.com/user/32782
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