Now is the ideal time to plant winter annuals, so they establish while the weather is mild and they can be enjoyed over the cooler months ahead.

Annuals never rest like their cousins the perennials. They are even blooming in the month of January when most of everything is resting. They just bloom and bloom until they cannot bloom anymore.

Keep your garden looking BRIGHT during those cloudy days of winter this year by planting some of these great, hard-working winter bloomers:

• Pansy & Viola: smiling faces that say “HI” each time you go outside
• Snapdragon: childhood memories with their “snapping” mouth shaped flowers. GREAT cut flower to cheer up a room during cloudy months.
• Calendula: the winter marigold with its yellow and orange faces will always brighten up your garden during the grey months of winter.
• Sweet Peas: plant knee hi or tall vining varieties. Harvest many bouquets throughout the late winter and spring. The more you harvest the flowers the more the plants will give you in return. Plant from seed.
• Cyclamen (coming soon): These are technically not annuals but great winter bloomers for the shade garden. They will even bloom for you in the complete shade if you keep them on the dry side. They are known for blooming and blooming when everything else is still asleep during the cloudy days of winter. They can also take full sun during December, January, and February so you can do a mixture of all winter annuals for your winter garden. We hope to see some Primrose which behave similarly in October.

Do not forget that the summer annuals will do the same thing for the garden. They will always be blooming their fool heads off just to make their cousins – the perennials – look lazy.  Plant Summer annuals beginning mid-March.

Enjoy annuals. They love to show off in your garden!