HARDY ANNUALS

March 24, 2025 Karen Logan

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HARDY ANNUALS

The Magic of Succession Gardening

Ever notice a lull in your garden between spring’s bloom and summer’s peak? That’s where hardy annuals shine—seamlessly filling the gaps and keeping the garden alive with color and movement. This technique, known as succession gardening, ensures a continuous display while supporting pollinators.

In December, we seeded a vibrant mix of cornflowers, poppies, Queen Anne’s lace, larkspur, and sweet peas—all carefully timed to establish strong root systems before winter. With early planting (as soon as March or April), these hardy annuals burst into bloom just when the garden needs them most, creating a dynamic, ever-changing landscape.

Learn more about Andrew Wiley's poetic gardening style

Vineyard Gardens Display bed in June filled with hardy annuals and biennials

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Why Hardy Annuals?

Extended bloom time – Last year, poppies planted on March 15 bloomed through July 4!
Strong root systems – Early winter seeding promotes healthier, more resilient plants.
Pollinator-friendly – A rich nectar source when other flowers are scarce.
Seamless integration – They blend naturally into garden beds as perennials take over.

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Best Uses for

Hardy Annuals

🌿 GARDEN BEDS – Hardy Annuals fill empty spaces and create a natural flow with perennials. All the hardy annuals we carry are perfect for your formal or informal flower gardens, landscapes or cottage gardens.

🌿 MASS PLANTINGS – A striking, meadow-like effect with minimal effort.

🌿 CUT FLOWERS – Hardy Annuals are great cut flowers! Below is a selection that are beautiful in your garden and on your table.

Larkspur
Sweet peas
Centaurea (Corn Flowers)
Scabiosa
Snap dragons (Antirrhinum)
Ammi majus/ Ammi majus 'Select White'
Ammi visnaga 'Green Mist'
Agrostemma (Both Colors)
Orlaya
Papaver: You must cauterize them (burn the tip of the stem with a lighter) in order for the bloom to last longer after cut.

🌿 CONTAINERS – Hardy Annuals provide early-season lush foliage and color with a mix of tall and trailing varieties. All the hardy annuals we carry are beautiful in containers.

Tall Plants: Cornflowers (36”), Queen Anne’s Lace, Larkspur
Front of Border/Containers: Asperula orientalis ‘Cloud Nine’ (long-blooming)
Other Selections: Poppies, Bellis, Variegated Vinca

🌿 WINDOW BOXES – Shorter hardy annuals are great for lining the front edge of a window boxes.

Asperula: Bloom mid April through the end of June
Papaver : Bloom May through second week of July

With a little planning, hardy annuals transform a garden’s “quiet moments” into a season of abundance.

Want to dig deeper? Explore a couple of our favorite varieties below and tips for planting success!

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Available Now!

Antirrhinum (Snapdragons) are part of the Potomac series which are excellent cut flowers.
Centaurea cyanus are also known as Bachelor Buttons or Cornflowers.

Larkspur 'Fancy Rose Striped'

Larkspur 'Fancy Smokey Eyes'
Larkspur 'Frosted Skies'
Larkspur 'Misty Lavender'
Larkspur QIS 'Lilac'
Larkspur QIS 'Pure White'
Larkspur QIS 'White'
Orlaya 'White Lace'
Papaver 'Imperial Pink'
Papaver 'Lady Bird'
Papaver rhoeas
Scabiosa 'Black Knight'
Scabiosa 'Fata Morgana'
Scabiosa 'Merlot Red'
Scabiosa 'Oxford Blue'

Agrostemma 'Ocean Pearl'

Agrostemma 'Purple Queen'
Ammi visnaga 'Green Mist'
Ammi majus 'Select White'
Antirrhinum majus 'Cherry Rose'
Antirrhinum majus 'Dark Orange'
Antirrhinum majus 'Potomac White'
Antirrhinum majus 'Royal'
Asperula orientalis
Asperula orientalis ‘Cloud Nine’
Centaurea cyanus 'Blue Boy'
Centaurea cyanus 'Select Ultraviolet'
Centaurea cyanus ‘Lady Mauve”
Larkspur 'Deep Blue'
Larkspur 'Fancy Blue Purple'

Lathyrus odoratus / Sweet Peas

Antirrhinum majus / Snapdragons

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VINEYARD GARDENS

DISPLAY BED

In June our display bed is in it’s full glory filled with hardy annuals and biennials. A tapestry of texture and color.

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spring checklist

need help this spring?

POETIC GARDENS

July 22, 2024 Karen Logan

Andew Wiley, working on Vineyard Gardens display bed

A PASSION

FOR PLANTS

Vineyard Garden’s Andrew Wiley, a creative plant ‘genus’

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It’s not just a job for Andrew Wiley, his passion for plants is infused in his bloodline. As a child he grew up at Vineyard Gardens, watching his horticulturalist parents, Chris and Chuck Wiley develop a singular greenhouse and lawn mowing business into the vibrant establishment it is today. Not only did Andrew soak in the atmosphere and information as a boy, he now embraces everything about plants, landscaping and design. After an unmatched year at Great Dixter House & Gardens, Andrew’s plant knowledge and creativity in the landscaping world has been unleashed. His ethereal and poetic gardens are a wonderful demonstration in succession planting, filling garden beds with continuous blooms throughout the year. His front bed display at Vineyard Gardens is constantly evolving, never a dull moment from one plant finishing it’s bloom cycle to a new one opening up. Within the display bed there are many beautiful vignettes that seamless work together as a whole.

Next time you are at Vineyard Gardens take a meditative walk along the display garden and you will notice something new, fresh and exciting each time.

“This photo is reminiscent of my time in England at Great Dixter All three of these plants can be found in the garden there. This Phlox was originally a seedling given to Christopher Lloyd by Margery Fish and is known at Dixter as Phlox paniculata ‘Margery Fish.’ Piet Oudolf decided to name the phlox ‘Dixter’ as it was never given a trademark name, something Great Dixter does not do with their plants for various reasons. The Salvia is one of my favorite biennials, best practice is to always plant all biennials in the fall. This will always give you bigger and better plants with much longer bloom time than if planted in Spring. The Marigold (Tagetes) was used on the Long Border at Dixter where Fergus received the seeds from a conference in France. I collected and brought back seeds from these plants. A true scrambler this Marigold gets huge and is best planted where it can tumble over and sprawl around.” Andrew Wiley

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July’s Display Bed

Have you ever had the chance to walk through a garden with Andrew? His energy and excitement for designing with plants is unmeasured. Spewing off latin names and talking about the evolution of gardens and biodiversity you feel like you just had a master class in horticulture. Andrew’s contagious spirit will have you walking away from Vineyard Gardens with a million plants because he made you fall in love with every single one of them!

Take a virtual walk to learn about July’s display bed.

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SUCCESSION GARDENING

March 15, 2024 Karen Logan

Digitalis purpurea illustration by karen blackerby logan

LESSONS IN

SUCCESSION

GARDENING

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There is a time in early summer when groups of perennials are either ending their season or just starting their growth spurts. During this ‘in-between’ period in June, the addition of hardy annuals effectively bridges the blooming gap filling in the empty space of spent perennials. This strategic planting is known as succession gardening, a layered gardening style that has continuous blooms throughout the season. Succession gardening breathes more color, cut flowers, birds and bees into the garden.

We seeded an assortment of hardy annuals last fall, such as Cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus), Ladybird poppies (Papaver commutatum), Rose of Heaven (Silene ‘Blue Angel’), Larkspurs, Feverfew, Queen Anne’s Lace (Ammi Majus), Snapdragons (Antirrhinum) and some biennials like Lychnis coronaria, Digitalis purpurea (hybrids) and Verbascums that bloom early and will flower through June and some into July. In addition to blooming in June, these annuals knit together a beautiful planting scheme with the evolving summer perennials.

Hardy annuals can be used both in formal gardens and natural settings.

SUCCESSION GARDENING TIPS

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The flowers of hardy annuals can occupy negative space in June and then the foliage of neighboring perennials fill that space in July.

Hardy annuals are best planted early, typically around mid march, depending on the weather. Planted early they will give you the maximum desired effect.
Vineyard Gardens has a great selection of our fall sown hardy annuals that are available now and ready to plant.
These plants can be directly sown in the spring but will not give you the size, vigor or highly anticipated jaw dropping display due to the warmer temperatures as spring progresses.

Alternatively, hardy annuals can be removed in July and replaced with tender annuals.

Tender annuals include Cosmos, Dahlias, Tagetes, Browalia, Ageratum, Coleus, Impatiens or Cleome.