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Available in various shapes, sizes and colours, annuals offer a splash of colour in the gardens, be it winter, summer or monsoon. They can be used in individual beds, mixed borders, rock-gardens or pots. Annuals function in many ways as they can be used to cover up unsightly areas or as partition between the ornamental and kitchen-garden, ground covers or filling up spaces between young shrubs. Ordinary fairly rich garden soil will suit most of them. A few popular annuals that need to be sown from March in North India are: Balsam or Impatiens balasamina: Attractive annuals coming in forms such as "rose flowered and "camellia flowered" and dwarf varieties in white pink, purple, coral and crimson red are easy to grow in beds and pots. Growing up to a height of 2 feet, the seeds may be sown in situ and thinned out or transplanted. Celosia: The celosias are feathered (plumose) or crested in bright shade of orange, scarlet, bronze, gold, pink or creamy white and it is the feathered sorts which are generally preferred for beds. The crested ones (c.cristata) better known as cockscomb, more so the dwarf variety is grown more often in pots. In Kashmir, the scarlet cockscomb is grown in kitchen gardens, dried and used for adding colour to mutton dishes. Seeds are sown in March to July. Cleome: A beautiful flower for the border, it gets its common name "spider flower" from the unusual cluster of pink or white spider like flowers with long stamens. It grows up to 3ft tall. The seedlings should be transplanted 2 ft apart each way. In early days, watering should be carefully monitored. Cosmea or Cosmos: These are easy to grow and while taller varieties are good for borders, dwarf ones suit beds. Available in white, gold, orange, rose and mauve, some of them have contrasting zones. The foliage is finely cut and fernlike. These can be sown from March to July and the seedlings transplanted 8 to 12 inches apart. Petunias: The petunias, with their broad and open funnel-shaped flowers in white, mauve, purple, pink and crimson are among the finest of the half-hardy annuals. Long-flowering, these are excellent for bedding, pots, and hanging baskets. The F-1 hybrids are the favourites these days due to their beauty, vigour and uniformity of colour. The plants should not be grown in very rich soil. The seed should be sown in boxes of light compost covered with very thin layer of soil from March to June. Portulaca: This low-growing, spreading plant forms a lovely floral carpet in the open garden and looks lovely in shallow pans. With a profusion of orange scarlet, rose, yellow, white and mauve single or double flowers, portulaca can be grown from seed sown in March to June or propagated by cuttings. Sunflower (Helianthus): Useful tall garden plant (up to 6-7 ft.) for screening or planting at the back of mixed borders, the golden flowered love sun and are best sown in situ-thinned 1 foot apart. The dwarf varieties are used for bedding. If disbudded, the sunflower can produce immense flowers of about 8-10 inches diameter. Zinnia: The many types available are giant dahlia-flowered, chrysanthemum-flowered, cactus (2 to 3 ft.) and gaillardia-flowered (1 to 2 ft.) to lilliputs (15 inches) to thumblina mixed strains which grow only on six inches stems, zinnias come in mixed colours or in white, pink, yellow, orange, crimson and mauve colours. In the Northern plains, they are sown in March-June and again in August-September. When transplanting, the seedlings should be spaced apart at a distance equal to three quarters of their eventual height. This article was published on February 27, 2005 |
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