Annuals can initially serve as a fill in while your perennials are growing and maturing. This is usually the top reason for their addition.  But did you know you can also select annuals to emphasize and compliment the traits of your existing perennials? Annuals can set off a color like the white vein of a hosta or bring out the muted purple in the Japanese painted fern. They can accent the shape of remaining perennial foliage after bloom with their continued bloom. Thinking of annuals as the “quiet support” in your garden can complete your full season interest.  My favorite resource for making my decisions about what plants to choose is the American Horticultural Society Plants for Every Season from DK Publishing. This hand sized companion book lists about 1000 bulbs, perennials, and annuals for all situations.  It lists plants by season and color and you don’t need to be a scientist to look up the plant name.  It is indexed by common name also!  I picked mine up years ago at the Cornell University book store, but you can check with your favorite bookstore. 

To get started, you really need to take an inventory of your current perennials. My selections for spring perennials include Iris, Primrose, and Forget-me-nots along with your spring bulb collections.  Cool temperature annuals that compliment these are Pansies and the miniature Pansies/Viola.  They come in such a range of colors and their short height allows for a great fill in or border feature. I prefer the Violas as they clump nicely, and do not become as leggy as the regular Pansies.  An extra bonus is the reseeding potential of Pansies. They can pop up next year. Check out the new “antique” color series of Pansies. They have an old fashion appeal that compliments the more traditional perennial gardens and many of our Victorian style homes in the area.

For summer blooms in part/full sun I can always count on perennials like the Garden Phlox, Black Eyed Susan, Lupine, Delphinium, Shasta Daisy, Purple Cone Flowers, Yarrow, Daylily, Geranium ,Sedum and the silvery Lambs Ears.  I use the fragrant annual: Alyssum to border these summer bloomers. Alyssum is especially nice along walkways and cascading down raised beds. The new Wave Petunias can be a great border accent, but be careful as they stretch everywhere given the right growing conditions. The standard Petunias are also out in the new “antique” colors.  A bit more pinching involved in these, but the new colors feature gold/yellow strains that richly compliment the purples. You can echo perennials colors like the pink in the garden phlox with a darker violet “red top” floss flower/ageratum. There is nothing like coleus with their variegated foliage to accent perennials blossoms and give more color to the residual greens. And who can forget marigolds.  There is something about the gold and orange combinations that can bring out purples and reds in gardens beautifully.

For part/shade loving summer bloomers, you can always count on Astilbe, Hosta, Foam flowers, Painted Ferns, and the new Black Lace.  Check out some of the miniature Hostas like the Grand Tiara for front borders.  Infusing complimentary color Impatiens in these areas can often bring out leaf color borders in the shade plants.

For the fall, you can’t beat, Autumn Joy Sedum, Field Grown Mums and Asters. I prefer to buy my mums regionally grown as they have a better return quality to them. With the dying back of your summer perennials along with their foliage, a nice annual to compliment these fall bloomers is the decorative cabbage.

We all want “low maintenance” gardens for our home.  You can achieve that with a little foresight and careful selection of solid backbone perennials.  In your quest for low maintenance, do not overlook the value of select annuals to support that garden.  It could make the difference between a great garden and one that is visually outstanding.

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* SueAnn DuBois is a Master Gardener and partner to the husband-wife team of Chips Landscaping.
 Chip’s Landscaping designs, constructs, and maintains outdoor landscape and water garden features in Saratoga County.