Annuals Plants at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Annuals plants are plants with a short life but a merry one. In the space of a few months they grow, flower and die, leaving the ground free for further cultivation, if necessary, and for other plants. Biennials are plants which must be renewed annually from seed, since they die after they have flowered and set seed. In this they resemble Annuals plants, but biennials take over a year to complete their cycle of growth. Seed sown one year will produce plants that will flower the next year, ripen their seed, and die before the second winter.

MANY BIENNIALS flower in early and midsummer, thus usefully filling an awkward gap that can occur between the spring and summer flowers. Like Annuals plants, they are temporary plants which should be pulled up and put on the compost pile when they have finished flowering. Also, as with Annuals plants, though it's easy enough to save seed of most kinds it is usually impossible to prevent cross-fertilization of different varieties, as a result of which home-saved seed produces only a mongrel population. The distinction between Annuals plants, biennials and herbaceous perennials is not always clear-cut since sometimes varieties of one group can be treated as if they belonged to one of the other groups; hollyhocks (Alcea), for example, can be grown as Annuals plants, biennials or short-lived perennials. However, to be sure of a regular succession of biennials it is necessary to sow seed every year at the correct season.

SHRUBS ARE commonly grouped either with other shrubs or with herbaceous plants and Annuals plants, but some kinds look their best planted as isolated specimens and some can be trained against walls. Magnolia stellata is an excellent example of the former type and pyracantha, Japanese quince (Chaenomelesjaponica), and ceanothus all do well against walls, where their stiff branches may provide support for genuine climbers, such as the less rampant varieties of clematis. Most shrubs take several years to attain their full size. In the meantime, temporary plants, such as dahlias, Annuals plants and herbaceous perennials, can be used to fill the space until the shrubs require it all.