Annual flowers make perfect plants for garden planters

Nothing brightens the summer more than a colorful display of planters full of annuals at your entrance or on your balcony or patio.

Annual flowers provide additional sensory delight with distinctive foliage while others perfume the air with sweet fragrance.

The selection of annual flowers for your summer garden planters is so plentiful it is often hard to know where to start.

Here's some tips to make your choices easier:

• First, determine the sunlight level of the location of your garden planters - full shade, full sun or partially shaded. Don't place plants with different light requirements in the same planter.
• Decide how tall you would like the plants in your container garden to grow. It is often most appealing to have a range of heights, with the tallest plant no taller than the height of the planter for good proportion.
• Decide on a color scheme for your planters
• Now...be creative. Try different combinations and note which ones are most pleasing to you.

Spring is when nurseries have the best selection of annual flowers for garden planters, and again in the fall for milder regions. Don't rush into planting your planters outdoors...make sure the danger of frost is well over as most annuals aren't frost-resistant.

In order to get the most from your annual flowers in planters, feed them with a slow-release fertilizer andregularly apply a water-soluble product. After a month, begin to fertilize every second time you water the plants. A water soluble 20-20-20 fertilizer is best. Fish emulsion is also good. Do your watering either in the morning or afternoon after the sun has moved off the plants and try not to splash the leaves, only the soil needs a drink!

Regularly remove faded flowers (dead-head) from your annuals and they will continue to bloom.

A Selection of Annual Flowers for garden planters:
Summer-blooming shade-tolerant annuals:

• Periwinkle
• Lobelia
• Impatiens walleriana (Busy Lizzie)
• Coleus
• Nicotiana
• Pansy

Easy, sun-loving annual flowers:

• Ageratum
• Asters
• Coreopsis
• English Daisy
• Marigolds
• Verbenas
• Gerbera
• Sweet alyssum
• Sweet pea
• Petunia
• Nasturtium
• Sweet Potato Vine
• Osteospermum

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