Tips & Benefits: Planting Annual Flowers

The Coachella Valley’s desert climate provides us with two distinct growing seasons for flowers – a warm season and a cool season.  Warm season flowers can be planted in early spring with blooms occurring throughout spring and early fall.  Cool season flowers are planted in the fall and depending on temperatures, can bloom through the spring season.  Both seasons provide a great opportunity to enhance the beauty and overall value of any landscape.  Below are some benefits that annual flowers can offer any property, big or small.

Color is a powerful tool and planting flowers near entryways and entertainment areas is a sure way of adding color and visual interest to any landscape.  With colors ranging from white to deep red, orange or purple, flowers beautify personal spaces, communities and commercial properties alike.  Complementary colors, those on opposite sides of the color wheel (e.g. yellow and purple) can make pleasing contrasts.  Colors next to each other on the color wheel are said to be harmonious (e.g. yellow and orange).  Green, blue, and purple are considered cool colors and can make the yard seem cooler and more inviting in the summer.  Warm colors – red, orange and yellow – can add excitement to the landscape.

Planting flowers is a great way of fostering a sense of pride and care in people and the spaces they inhabit.  According to a study completed by Washington State University, plants such as flowers or trees have a positive impact on people and increase a person’s overall feeling of well-being.  This study shows that plants impact human emotions and enhance positive feelings.  Some annual flowers also provide pleasing aromas and attract local wildlife (bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, etc) which helps promote pollination.

With annual flowers, you don’t have to see the same thing year after year.  Try out new trends in garden design or change the mood of your property by using a different color palette.  This will keep your property’s landscape looking fresh and up to date.

Here are some quick tips for planting your own annual flowers….

Annual flowers look great when massed together for maximum color effect, although they can also work well when grouped in odd numbers.

Plant near patios, entryways and entertainment areas where they can be shown to best advantage.

Most plants need a minimum of eight to ten hours of sunlight to produce flowers, however, there are a few varieties  that thrive in the shade.  Identify how much sun exposure your planter bed receives on a daily basis and select plants that will thrive in that environment.

It is normal practice to create a flower design that utilizes multiple varieties of flowers in order to achieve stunning results.  While doing so, it is important to remember to group flowers with the same water needs to avoid under/over-watering individual plants.

Researching plant heights will be useful in creating your design.  When planting a one-sided bed such as next to a wall, put taller flowers in back.  If the flower bed can be seen from two sides, tall growers look best in the center so they don’t conceal smaller plants.

Deadheading is the term used for removing spent blossoms. Cutting or pinching off the dead flowers on a weekly basis prolongs the blooming period since the plant will not expend energy on seed production.

If you are interested in enhancing your property with annual color or if have any questions regarding annual color in general, please do not hesitate to contact us.