Plant Profiles - Info on Growing and Using Popular Garden Annuals

Climbing snapdragons aren't really snapdragon plants, but the tubular flowers are very similar. This deceptively delicate vine offers a profusion of flowers and very few problems.

Canary Creeper or Canary Bird Vine is a twinning plant with yellow flowers that resemble a canary in flight. A relative of nasturtiums, it is almost as easy to grow.

Cardinal Climber is a delicate, airy plant that scrambles over structures, but doesn't block the view. The tubular red flowers are hummingbird favorites.

Cobaea scandens is a mouthful of a name for such a charming vine. You may know it as Cup and Saucer Vine or Cathedral Bells, which are far better and more descriptive names. It's a vigorous vine, but a late bloomer. Here are some tips to grow it in your garden.

Black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata) has cheerful bright flowers that look like black-eyed Susan flowers, until you get up close and see they are tubular-shaped. The plant is a quick growing vine that is very versatile in the garden.

Coleus plants have become a must have in the garden. The colorful foliage instantly brightens a garden design and lasts all season long. Here's where to find out what coleus are available and identify your favorites.

Diascia, or Twinspur, is a delicate trailing plant that repeat blooms throughout the summer. Diascia is a favorite in containers and hanging baskets. Growing Diascia is easy. A couple of Diascia plants will keep you in flower all season.

Feather reed grasses (Calamagrostis x acutiflora) and upright, clump forming ornamental grasses. Feather reed ornamental grasses are easy to grow and care fore and it's quite easy to work a few Calamagrostis into your garden design.

Four O'Clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) are fragrant tender perennial flowers that start blooming in late afternoon and keep blooming until morning. Four O'Clocks bloom for months, with little maintenance. More tips on growing Four O'Clocks.

Bright, cheerful zonal geraniums are actually not geraniums at all. Somehow, "Pelargonium" just doesn't have the same ring, so call them what you want and use these tips to grow them well.

Impatiens are the most reliable flowers for shady areas of the garden. Now there are more choices than ever in varieties of Impatiens. Simply Beautiful flowers has come out with the tropical looking Fusion Impatiens series, including a yellow Impatiens, as well as the trailing and cascading Fanfare Impatiens series.

Growing information on marigolds. Marigolds are one of the most popular plants to grow and the National Garden Bureau has declared 2010 the Year of the Marigold.

Marigolds are a favorite formal bedding plant of garden designers. Marigolds are cheerful, compact yellow, orange and burgundy annuals with flower shapes that can resemble daisies, coreopsis and carnations.

In my local garden center, mealy cup sage is known as blue salvia. Although Salvia farinacea comes in purples and whites, it’s the blue varieties that attract attention and repeat customers. This Texas native grows into a shrubby plant with tall, sturdy spikes of flowers that bloom throughout the summer. They make great cut and dried flowers...

Nasturtiums are cool season annual flowers in rich, jewel tone colors. Nasturtiums are extremely easy to grow, practically growing themselves. There are bushy, trailing and climbing nasturtiums to fill every gardening need. They are even edible. You won’t usually find seedlings of nasturtiums, but the large seeds germinate quickly and the plants bloom all season. Here are some more nasturtium growing tips.

Nigella earns its common name of Love-in-a-Mist with a tangle of ferny, fennel like foliage that form a mist around the flowers. I'm not sure why anyone would call Nigella Devil in the Bush. Nigella flowers start off as interesting puffs, open into rich toned, straw-flower like blossoms and change into equally attractive seed pods. Here are some tips for growing Nigella in your garden.

Ornamental cabbage and flowering kale are in the same species, Brassica oleracea, as edible cabbages and kale. Although they are still edible, they aren’t as tasty and tender as their cousins. But they're as easy to grow, as shown here.

Osteospurmum is a funny name for a unique flower. The blooms are similar to a daisy, but in unusual color combinations. The silvery variety with a blue center disk give the plants their common name of Blue-Eyed Daisy. Profuse blooming and relatively low maintenance, Osteospurmum work well in the garden or in containers.

Pansies are cool weather plants. They can handle frost and repeat bloom throughout the spring and fall. Tips for growing pansy plants.

Petunias have done a 180 in recent years. They are much more tolerant of rain and many don't need any deadheading at all. They mound, they trail and they bloom their hearts out. How do you know what type of petunia to buy? Here's a petunia 101 on which types of petunias are best for your garden, hanging baskets and groundcovers.

Petunias are one of the most popular bedding flowers and new types of petunias are constantly being introduced. Here are some petunia basics to guide you through grandifloras, waves, supertunias and more, as well as how to grow and care for your petunias and keep them blooming all summer.

Snapdragons are colorful cool season flowers that grow easily in most gardens and climates.

The silvery purple leaves of Persian Shield are great in containers, borders or even indoors.

Sunflowers make any day feel like a summer's day. They make look exotic, but sunflowers are extremely easy to grow. You can choose traditional yellow sunflowers or maybe try growing sunflowers in rich rusts and burgundies. Here are some tips for growing your own sunflowers.

Sweet Alyssum - A Fragrant, Easy to Grow Flower

Sweet peas evoke old fashioned cottage gardens, with their fluttering blossoms and intense fragrance. Growing sweet pea vines in the garden is both simple and rewarding, with a long season of bloom and an abundance of cutting flowers.

Torenia's bright and quirky upturned flowers give rise to many common names, like wishbone and clown flower. Torenia is a profuse blooming annual that starts flowering early in the season and keeps up the show through fall, with minimal deadheading. Most varieties form a mound that eventually trails down the sides of pots. Torenia is deer...

Violas and pansies are such stalwarts that gardeners take them for granted . These cool season bloomers are great for spring and fall gardens and for bridging the seasons in warmer areas, where they’ll bloom right through the winter. Newer violas have bolder colors and larger flowers that bloom longer. Even better, the new violas and pansies...

Bright colored zinnias can light up a border or container all summer long.

One of the easiest annual flowers to grow, zinnias are also low maintenance and quick to grow from seed. They bloom throughout the summer and stand up well in heat. Zinnias are at home in borders, containers and cutting gardens.

Tips for growing scented geranium plants. Caring for and using scented geraniums (Pelargonium).