Beautiful Julia, Anne and jmorth! Glad to see others that enjoy annuals.
My favorite annuals are ones that will reseed or that I can take cuttings from and save overwinter indoors. Save me lots each year. These pink cosmos are about 3' tall. I call them Alliance cosmos because I was visiting my sister in Alliance NE and put a few seeds in my pocket when we were out walking. Grew them in a pot the first year and they reseeded on the ground and have come back for years now. I grow them in the bed I garden in in my neighbor's yard and use them as a background behind the daylilies and iris that are in that bed.
I like French marigolds because they also reseed nicely. These are new ones I planted this year on the side of the fence near another neighbor's driveway. I don't see it often, so just wanted something easy. They are in front of some tall white boltonia.
Coleus are the annual I use the most and take cuttings of each year. I have a number of containers of them on my front porch. Once the daylilies and lilies in the front strip area are finished, I like to move some of the pots of coleus to add fall interest to that area.
I also have containers of mostly coleus, some cannas and other annuals in my driveway. The tall stacking plant stand and the tall coleus help block the back of my driveway and provide privacy from a neighbor.
I always plant impatiens to fill in the spaces around heuchera that grow along a narrow sidewalk leading to the front door. One of the only mostly shade areas in the garden.
Other annuals are used to fill in along the edges of my pathways. I used snapdragons, zinnias, salvia , angelonia and pentas this year.
These two areas will be planted with lilies this fall, so the annuals were used to fill them in this summer.
Pansies are used in containers in the spring to add color before the other annuals get going and are later replaced with lantana or verbena. The lantana is very slow to get going this year. By fall they usually cover a 30"X30" area in the corners of the front garden. You can just see one getting going in the background of this photo. The alyssum and moss rose reseed from year to year along the edges of the front beds.
One small raised bed in back I plant with zinnias each year. This year I'm using uproar pink to cool down all the hot colors in back.
