Will it be Perennial Flowers or Annuals?

One of the biggest decisions when preparing to plant your garden is whether you want to grow perennial flowers or annuals. Before you make this decision you need to know what the two terms mean. Annuals flower only once. You plant them, they come up and then when they have bloomed and die, that is all there is. They are done for the year and if you want those flowers for next year you’ll have to plant them again.

Perennial flowers are the opposite. After you have planted them and they have bloomed for the year you will see the same flowers come up year after year. Perennial flowers will bloom for three to five years depending on the type and if you do a very little maintenance they will bloom for many years more.

Why should you pick one type over the other? They each have their advantages. With annuals you can change the way your garden looks every year. Maybe there are flowers you didn’t like. Then you simply don’t need to plant them the following year. This means that you can have a different garden every year! But it also means a lot of work every year, unlike perennial flowers. You need to choose new alternatives and of course, plant them. Depending on the size of your garden this can be a lot of work.

If instead you choose perennial flowers then you can make more permanent decisions on your garden. Having found what you like you can be assured that next year your perennial flowers will return. Even if you decide you don’t like some of the perennial flowers you planted its easy to make changes. You can simply remove the bulbs and pass them along to that neighbor who admired them. Then try again. Find another one of those colorful perennial flowers and plant it. It’s likely it won’t take too much time before you find the right combination. After that, you  can look forward to the yearly blooms.