Time to start planning your Spring planting, so here’s five top annuals to add to your garden for a summer flower extravaganza!
These popular annuals fit in well with a wide range of landscaping themes and designs, in waterwise gardens and lush subtropical gardens, and do well in most micro-climates.
Top annuals for lush colourful gardens in South Africa
1. Sweet Alyssum Lobularia maritima*
Everyone’s favourite annual never seems to go out of style! For good reason: Alyssum’s dense cap of delicate white flowers, compact, sprawling growth and prolific flowering make it popular from Karoo to Coast. It looks great with everything, even succulents, and it self-sows well.
Flowers are usually white or purple.
*Note that some newer Laobularia hybrids do not self-sow. Bred to be hardier and to bloom for longer, they must be replanted every year.
2. Marigolds
Bright orange marigolds add months of eye-catching colour to any garden, even in dry areas. They come in several varieties, with blooms ranging in colour from deep orange to yellow. They are easily one of the most popular indigenous annuals for South African gardens. The flowers are also edible! (main post image)
3. Nasturtiums
Beautiful, vibrant, beloved by aphid eating ladybugs, and bees! Nasturtiums spread easily – in beds or across ‘wild’ grassy areas. The most common colour is a bright orange, but they also come in yellow and a deeper red-orange red. The flowers are also edible – both pretty and delicious on summer salads, especially paired with marigolds.
4. Impatiens
Striking, densely packed flowers in almost every colour make these low growing and gorgeous annuals a must-have in any garden. The bold, usually solid-colour flowers are guaranteed head-turners, and they can thrive in shady areas as well as in bright sun.
5. African Daisies
Self-sowing indigenous daisies come in a host of varieties, with a multitude of flower colours and colour combinations and flower forms. Low growing daisy annuals make the perfect garden border fillers and are ideal for ‘wildflower lawns’. Taller daisy bushes can be planted as garden features. They are drought tolerant and hardy annuals, with there varieties for every season, including winter.
