Annuals again - or not?

great blog Spritz and beautiful photos.
next yr i want more wildflowers in the garden. i grew loads of foxgloves from seed this yr so hopefully i will have loads of those next summer

Interesting that not every packet of seeds performed as you had planned. It's definitely one of the fun things about gardening ~
the surprises ! :o)

The summer sorbet is very atractive. Pitty only one grew. They'd look lovely in a border.
I like the orange cosmos too. It would look nice in the right place.
You had so many diferent Godetias I'm not surprised you'll be growing them next year.
I hope I'll be better organised next year and have my garden sorted out so that I can concentrate more on the plants.
Some pleasant weather would help too for a change.

~with you on all of the above Hywel~!

What a strange growing season it was!!! I planted escholzia (California Poppy) and nothing happened!...it could have been the seed...(sometimes bargains aren't bargains) The surprise of my summer was the nigella... I'm certainly going to get more seed for them...blue ones too! I had the same experience with plants disappearing because they didn't grow to the height they were supposed to!...I was scratching my head...trying to figure what was wrong with my large bed...but realized I made an error by planting asparagus in the middle...should have put it closer to the front edge of the bed(I love the ferny green, as well as the veg) because I was afraid to dig and cultivate when adding the corms and rhizomes for fear of disturbing it. I'm looking forward to this winter's work on thewebsite...filling up my garden blog with observations, etc. and deciding on a strategy for next spring's move... (Not looking forward to that, but on the up-side...there's a chance to start all over again!)

Those godetias are lovely, i think i'll be having some of them, enjoyed your blog.

I enjoyed this blog Spritz, lovely photo's.

Beautiful pictures, Spritz, I like all your flowers but was quite taken especially with the 'poached egg' plant!

A very interesting blog Spritz, I'll certainly make notes and look for the green nicotiana especially. I also love the look of the butterfly antirrhinums!

I didn't realise rudbeckias were so easy to grow from seed, another for my list!

Great summing up of your annuals Spitz, a wonderful guide for all. I think they are all my favourites. The Poached egg plant will definately seed. I had them in a big triangle out on the lane they were a real carpet every year, but sadly they have gone now as every one insisted on parking their cars on them, I did not have the heart to tell them and as they died back each year, they were not to know. Consequently, they eventually gave up the goast!!! My Uncle was a gardener in a big house and had a wonderful garden of his own. My Aunty always brought flowers when she came to visit and one of the favourites were the poached egg plant. She would dig up a big lump of them and put them on a deep plate which she kept watered in the centre of the table, then when they finished flowering would take them back out and re plant them. A Lovelt table centre decoration.

Great blog, and beautiful pics, you have given me food for thought, the godetias will certainly be on my list, such pretty colours, thanks again for a most informative blog.

Thanks Spritz. i don 't grow many Annuals, but next year its Godetia for me. Jolly useful Blog.

Another lovely blog, Barbara. I used to grow lots of annuals, but over the years I've kept on shoe-horning in more perennials and now there's not much space left for annuals - your blog reminded me that I miss them! :-)

Do you think I could negotiate a discount on packets of Godetia seeds from one of the seed companies for the publicity I'm giving them? LOL.

It was a very strange year for the garden my godetia which usually do well were very disappointing however I had beautiful dahlias and loads of nasturtiams until the frost got them last Tues,also lost my chrysanths this year so got to start again with them,my cosmos were also very short Spritz so guess mother earth playing tricks in your garden as well as mine.lol

Lovely photos Spritz. I wish I lived nearer, I would come and (pay to) see your garden. Telme is right about poached eggs. They will seed. Boy will they seed. I am sure they will soon be on DEFRA's hit list as an invasive plant. But they are easy to control. I lost mine (used as ground cover) for 3 years whilst I was re-designing. But they are back this year, before the redesigning is even finished - LOL.

John.

Lovely, Spritz! I, as you know, choose plants to suit a theme, and always have plenty of annuals. One that I can never do without, like yourself, is Rudbeckia, and our varieties for next year will be "Cappuccino" and "Chocolate Orange". On the Nasturtium front, we'll be having "Maharajah" and "Black Velvet", and Calendula "Indian Prince". I like Nigella, too, and have found one called "Choc Ice". Our list goes on and on.....!

Great Blog Spritz, I was always very jellous of your Godetias, i did'nt get even one out of the pack i sowed, i also did'nt get any luck out of the Californian poppies i think i got one plant that did'nt do very much atall. i had some lovely Snap dragons too, mine were monarch mix, i have saved some seed off them to re-sow. but i think i will also get some of the open antirrinham that you had this year Spritz they were very lovely. also another defo for me will be the two variety of pot marigold that i had this year, 'sherbert fizz' and 'Art shades' both were lovely and some are still flowering now. i know that some of you had problems with them this year, but mine were really good, so seed has been saved for them. also the opium poppies that you sent to Brooke were stunning! thanks for thoughs, i have saved lots of seed to re-sow them again. the sunflower 'claret' that Brooke grew were lovely at first, but they came under real attact from blackfly so never reached there full potential. but i think we will give them another try. i also had some lovely 'shirley' poppies which i will sow again next year. i sowed some 'frosted queen' cornflower that i think i got 2 plants from, they were nice but i think i will plant some blue ones in there place next year. my Nigellia were also very good so i have seed for them. i have also bougt a few new ones to try out next year already, 'Black Scabious' - which i think is perennial,'Coreopsis - Quills & Frills' 'Red Cornflower', and Cleome Rose queen'. but to be honest have'nt done much shopping for seeds as yet, there are a few others i have been thinking about, but want to see how much room i have in my greenhouse, come early spring.

Lovely pictures. I'm thinking of getting some Limnanthes to underplant my whitecurrant, it's supposed to be a good companion (at least Bob Flowerdew thinks so).

I had some nigellas grow tiny and some huge from the same sowing. I think it was just a case of plant competition and being shaded out for my 'runty' ones - could the same apply to you?

Good theory, but wrong, unfortunately, Elleme. I planted them in the sun in my back garden. Strange seedheads, too, now they've got to that stage. They look like little tiny horns, not 'bubbles' like the blue ones have. I am not at all sure that they will seed themselves.

Hi - this is my first comment on a blog. As a newcomer please excuse my ignorance. I am not entirely sure what an annual is. I would probably embarrass myself if I mentioned something that was not even an annual. Thanks to this blog I now know of the names of some beautiful annuals that I am inspired to try. Thank you for your time and effort creating this blog and the interesting comments made in response. I particularly liked Telme8’s contribution and was left wondering whether the poached egg plants are edible. I was so impressed with the blog I thought it would be interesting to start a blog myself. As I am lacking in plant expertise I think I would have to write about something I can do – collect garden rubbish. You probably call it weeding. I however unknowingly remove the plants as well! Has there been a blog already about composting? What do you do with the annuals when they have finished flowering?

Hello Gardeningfriend ~
An annual is a plant which only lasts one season and then you plant seeds to grow the same plant again the following year. Not very technical but it is a start to answering your questions !

I'm so glad you are enjoying GoY.
Please ask away.
Write blogs. Make comments.
Everyone is here to help :o)

Hi Gardening friend. Welcome to GoY. No, poached egg plants are not edible, they are called poached egg plants because of the yellow and white flowers. When annuals finish flowering then it is usual to compost them, in many cases after taking off any seeds for the following season or allowing them to spread their own seeds. Not that packets of seeds cost a fortune but why buy some when your own plants are quite happy to supply them free.

Only got on to GoY about 4 weeks ago myself (although I am not a novice gardener) so I don't know if anyone has blogged 'composting'. I imagine they have and a longer standing member may know.

John.

John ~

In four weeks you've made lots of very useful contributions to GoY. I'm glad you joined. :o)

Putting the words COMPOST or COMPOSTING into search in top right corner, brings you to lots of compost-related topics on GoY.
I hope this helps.

Hallo Gardeningfriend - welcome to GOY! Please don't be embarassed at anything you don't know or understand! That's one of the reasons that GOY exists, to help each other.
Thank you for your kind words about this blog - yes, it took a while to write and choose the photos, but I enjoyed doing that and I'm glad you found it helpful.