As summer turns towards autumn you may be looking forward to a bold splash of colour from your late flowering annuals. To blanket the ground you can use a mass planting of easy to grow annuals with long flowering characteristics. Below we offer a list of top ten annuals to consider but there are many varieties and species that fit the bill.

Autumn Annual Bed

• Plan where you are going to plant your annuals for autumn flowering. Consider height, colour and shape of the plants in your selection. Plan low at the front and contrasting colours in opposition
• Improve the soil with compost dug in to improve water retention.
• Rake the top soil smooth and mark out a plan of what you want to grow where.
• Individual potted or plug plants can be set 3-4inches apart.
• Some plants you can grow from scattered seed to fill the gaps. They may need thinning later.

Plant Varieties for Autumn Annuals

• Low growers to consider include the white Sweet Allysum ‘Little Dorrit’, Tagetes tennufoila ‘Tangerine Gem’ and Viola ‘Maxim Marina’ light blue with dark faces.
• Zinnias can be free sown and a good mixed packet will flower in red, orange, yellow, pink and cream.
• Wax begonias semperflorens is a popular low grower that will stand a bit of shade if necessary.
• I like African Marigolds a big double flower in yellow or orange. French Marigolds are smaller but intensely coloured and will go on flowering until the first frost.
• Cineraria senecio is a plant grown for it’s light grey- silver finely cut leaves.
• For mid height and airy foliage try Cosmos ‘Sonata white’ or Mexican sunflowers.
• If you have some form of support for climbers there are several annuals that work hard to give you a good display including; Ipomea alba or ‘Cardinal’, Mirablis jalapa, Lablab purpureus and the cup and saucer vine Cobaea scandens.
• I am already over the ten plants and you probably only need 5 varieties repeating in a pattern. However the best value seeds are often from the annual Dahlias which flower for fun.

Photo Credits
Mixed Annuals by dbkfrog CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

“2008-07-08 Mohave Autumn Bronze – Bracteantha by rosepetal236 and 2008-07-08 Colorado State University Annual Flower Trial Garden by rosepetal236 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Footnotes for Autumn Annuals

Some plants may last more than one season but I recommend treating all these plants as annuals.
Collect the seed in autumn if you want to grow then again and compost the old plants.
Deadhead and pick for indoor use to encourage even more flowers.
In the UK plant in early June to give your annuals chance to develop good roots.