Knowing how to care for flowers in your garden requires that you understand their lifecycle. Here’s a very simple primer on the difference between annuals, perennials and biennials:
Annual
An annual goes from seed, to plant, to flower, and back to seed in one growing season. Examples of annuals include morning glory, sunflower, and marigold.
Perennial
A perennial grows for multiple seasons. The root system does not die as with an annual, but the above ground growth generally does die back. Examples of perennials include coreopsis, purple coneflower, and lavender.
Biennial
Biennials take two years to complete their life cycle. They go from seed to plant the first year, and then from plant to flower to seed the second year. The seed drops and begins to grow continuing the cycle. Examples of biennials include foxglove, columbine, and hollyhock. (Biennials take my breath away!)
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Thank you for visiting Learning And Yearning. May "the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." Num 6:24-26
Betty Manousos says
thanks for those great tips regarding flowers adn gardening.
i really enjoyed your shots and your blog content.
Lisa @ Two Bears Farm says
Great information – I do get them mixed up! Also, I trimmed back my lavender last fall and killed it 🙁
Agi's Farmhouse Kitchen says
Great post and nice photos!
joanne says
Great tutorial….I didn’t know all that…..and your photos are grand
Nancy says
Thank you for the great post — great information for the flower gardener.
Mary says
I love perennial. I have hollyhocks and foxglove. I love that name, foxglove as much as I love the flower. I just signed up too.. please come for a visit, too.
Jennifer says
I didn’t learn about this until I married a gardener! Still learning… Your marigolds are just lovely!
Heather says
I haven’t done any perennials in my garden before. The ones that I have are the day lilies and peonies that were here when we bought the house. But, I would like to add some perennial herbs to the mix…once I figure out where I want to put them 🙂
zentMRS says
Always get that backwards – thanks for the clear explanation!
susanv says
Glad to help!