We have put together our top 5 annuals for the year.  Some of these are old favorites and others are ones that we have started to grow the last few years. Let us know what your favorites are for the year. You can comment on our blog post or let us know on the Blooming Secrets Facebook Page

Number 5 on the Blooming Secrets list of favorite summer annuals portulaca is a tireless bloomer which readily self-seeds itself in our Virginia garden. As a matter of fact we haven't purchased portulaca seeds or plants for over a decade as it keeps coming back on its own. We love it in containers but it makes a fine bedding plant too. As if all of this isn't enough it's drought tolerant too!

Blue Verbena wins the #4 spot on our list of 5 favorite summer annuals. We purchased these plants nearly 20 years ago and they've been coming back ever since. They give new meaning to the term self-seeding! The color blue is not easy to find in the garden which makes this plant extra special. It goes great in combination with yellow and orange flowers such as marigolds, zinnias and lantana.

Calibrochoa is #3 on our Blooming Secrets top 5 summer annuals is a new comer to our garden. We've only grown it for the past 2 summers and it is rapidly moving up our list! Every year there seem to be new colors of this flower and it is a knock out in hanging containers. We've fed ours once a month and you can see the results. It started blooming in May and has looked like this ever since!

Zowie Zinnia is #2 on our Blooming Secrets list of the 5 best summer annuals is a scene stealer. No flower gets more comments and questions from passerby's in our neighborhood than the Zowie Zinnia. Like most zinnias it is a prolific bloomer and one of its unique features is that the color of the blooms can vary from one plant to another. Some are red and yellow, others are orange with a trace of blue/purple in the inner part of the bloom and there is also a pure red flower too. It does sometimes have a problem with a few flower buds becoming distorted but its blooms are so beautiful you won't notice!

Now for the moment you've been waiting for...the #1 Blooming Secrets summer annual is Cosmos Bright Lights. We were introduced to this flower through an advertisement which attached a seed pack to its mailing and we've grown it ever since. Its flowers come in shades of orange and yellow which keep coming from late May until the frost finally knock them out in the fall. We collect the seed each fall to have plenty to plant the following spring but it's such a prolific self-seeder it's almost not necessary. This plant is the backbone of our summer flower borders and it will take something extra special to knock if from our top spot!

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