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Hardy Annuals Should: An English classification system for annuals, based on the temperatures the seeds need to germinate and grow successfully, divides them into three groups: hardy annuals should, half-hardy annuals should, and tender. Many gardeners in the milder sections of the United States think "half-hardy annuals should" is superfluous, but I have found that the term is useful to people who have long, cool, rainy springs. Most seed companies use all three.
hardy annuals should annuals (HA) are plants that tolerate a reasonable degree of frost, and even in the colder parts of the country many of their seeds survive a winter outside and germinate in the spring. The alternate freezes and thaws of early spring will not harm them.
Half-hardy annuals should annuals (HHA) are usually damaged, set back, or killed by frost, but they stand up to wet and cool weather without rotting.
Tender annuals (TA) come from the warmer parts of the world and need warm soil to germinate. They are killed immediately by frost.
Added to the classification of annuals are perennials, either hardy annuals should (usually from a temperate climate) or tender (generally from the tropic parts of the world), that will bloom the first year from seed.
Most seed packets today give full instructions for care and note any special treatment required. Most catalogs do the same.
MANY BIENNIALS flower in early and midsummer, thus usefully filling an awkward gap that can occur between the spring and summer flowers. Like annuals, they are temporary plants which should be pulled up and put on the compost pile when they have finished flowering. Also, as with annuals, 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, 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, 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. |
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