Ground Cover Annual Flowers

Massed petunias cover the ground with bright flowers in summer.

Versatile, brightly colored annual flowers are a gardener's best friends for seasonal, easy-care color in the home garden. Annual ground covers provide fast-growing sheets of flowers for filling in until perennials take over, for experimenting with a color scheme or for a display that may be altered seasonally. Plant bedding plants when they become available in local nurseries at the beginning of the growing season in your area, or direct-sow inexpensive seeds from packets.

Sun-Loving Ground Covers

Colorful ground-covering petunias bloom best in full sun.

Sun-loving annual ground-covers are wonderful fill-ins among roses and in perennial beds. Ground cover and multiflora petunias types are especially are suitable. Choose from among a rainbow selection of colors from reds, pinks, white and creams, purples, lavenders, blues and variegated colors. Most nurseries will have double- or single-flowering choices. Locate fragrant petunias near outdoor living areas. Dwarf snapdragons may be massed to create a 6-inch-high ground cover in a sunny spot. Garden balsam, in whites, purples and reds likes moist soil and full sun. For bright yellow, orange or bronze colors, French marigold is easy to grow and creates a beautiful mass at 6 to 12 inches high.

Sun to Semi-Shade

Massed pansies thrive in cooler weather and in sun or semi-shade.

Garden verbena in blues, reds and white grow to 12 inches high and cover the ground.

Annual phlox in colors excluding blue, are effective massed at 6 to 12 inches high. Creeping zinnias (Sanvitalia procumbens) provide a long season of yellow bloom. At 8 inches high, they resemble tiny zinnias. Nasturtiums have a trailing habit. Blooming in yellows, oranges, reds and cream colors, they provide edible flowers for summer salads. Pansies, including Johnny Jump-ups, perform best in the cooler temperatures of early spring and late summer, when they will tolerate full sun. Extend their season by massing in semi-shade for the summer months. Sweet alyssum grows easily from seed and is fragrant.

Semi-Shade to Shade

Colorful impatiens brighten a semi-shady spot.

Bright impatiens (Impatiens walleriana) in orange, pinks, reds, purple and white bloom June through September in semi-shaded areas. Impatiens is beautifully effective massed under a deciduous or evergreen tree. Annual begonias are available in a variety of colors for shady spots. Coleus is grown primarily for its colorful foliage. Coleus lights up the shade as effectively as plants with showier flowers. Edging lobelia in red and blue will grow to 4 inches high and succeeds in semi-shade.

Water-Wise Annuals

Moss rose thrives in dry conditions and sandy soil.

For vibrant displays in hot, dry areas, plant low growing plumed celosia and crested cockscomb. Plumed celosia has feathery plumes in reds, yellows, oranges purple and pink. Crested cockscomb has interestingly structured flowers in red, yellow and orange. Both are in the celosia family, and the flowers can be dried for permanent floral arrangements. Moss rose flowers look like tiny double roses. This drought-tolerant ground cover can be easily grown from seed. Available in a wide variety of colors, including white, pinks, reds and roses, yellows, oranges and cream. These flowers are glowingly bright.

References

• North Carolina State University; Annual Flowers; Erv Evans; 2000
• University of Illinois Extension; Gardening with Annuals; Directory of Annuals
• Purdue University Cooperative Extension; Annual Flowers; Michael N. Dana
• University of Minnesota Extension; Growing Petunias; Deborah Brown; 2011