Winter Annuals to Try
When you purchase and before you plant annuals, in any season, trim them back. It is hard to convince yourself, but cut off the flowers. Or buy full plants without blooms. Prune gently, so they will branch and give you bigger, more robust plants, and more bloom in the long run.. Add gritty soil for drainage, and amend the soil with organic matter like compost, apply a 3-1-2 garden fertilizer, like Microlife, and mulch. Some flowers, like petunias and calendulas, may need protection from the extreme climate changes we can experience, for example, when 80 degree days drop to 30 degree nights. Covering with white polyester row cover is often ample. Watering well before a freeze should also help.
All of the following can go in full winter sun.
Brassicas can be grown easily from seed, such as Swiss chard, go for the Bright Lights series for lots of stem color in orange, red, yellow and white. Use ornamental kale (Nagoya series) and cabbage (Color up) for a formal look. Try growing some colorful Red Sails lettuce, they are very tough plants, and all of the the brassicas and lettuce are edible.
Ornamental Kale. Swiss Chard. Color up cabbage. Red sails lettuce
Calendulas can freeze, but stay in flower until it gets hot. I love the scent of the leaves.
Larkspur seed can be directly sown in a flowerbed for masses of bloom, because they can be touchy about transplanting. Put the seed package in the freezer overnight to help with germination. This also works with Delphiniums, which send up incredible spikes of blue flowers. Treat as a winter annual with spring bloom, as it will not take the summer heat in our area. Try Magic Fountain Mix, or a shorter vibrant mix called Dwarf Blue Butterfly.
Dianthus – there are many cultivars, like the Telstar hybrids for long lasting color and uniformity.
California poppy (Eschscholtzia californica) likes the same conditions as our Texas bluebonnets, and they look great in a planting together.
Calendula Larkspur Delphinium Butterfly. California poppy
Dutch iris are actually perennial bulbs but use as annuals in our climate. They have long
grassy silvery foliage with blue, yellow or white flowers. Bronze Queen is bronze and blue, quite a combination.
Also Anemone coronaria de Caen types, a fun corm that looks like a dried ear…with stunning flowers.
Mimulus – Monkey flowers, make a great front of the border plants, but protect from extreme cold.
Don’t forget the Texas Drummond phlox that comes in many cultivars for variety and long bloom and reseeding next year.
Violas are much preferred over pansies. They tolerate the warmer winter days, and some shade. Try these cultivars: Panola cross between pansy and viola, Crystal Bowl series, and Sorbet series for lots of color variation. Pansies and violas belong to the same genus (Viola) and look very similar, but they have distinct
differences. Pansies feature large, bold blooms (up to 2 inches or more) that often look like little faces with dark center blotches. Violas have smaller blooms (about the size of a nickel), but they produce many more flowers per plant and handle extreme weather better.
I enjoy Petunias, there are lots of new and amazing flower forms and colors. An old favorite is the magenta Laura Bush, that can handle our heat which may happen quickly in the spring; hopefully it’s still available.
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