Kamal Ghorui
If your garden has been looking a little bare, and you keep telling yourself you’ll do something about it soon, May is basically sending you a formal invite. The soil is warm, you are past the frost risk (for most of the US), and annuals sown now can go from seed to full bloom in as little as 8-10 weeks. This makes for a truly gorgeous garden by midsummer, without spending a fortune at the nursery.It’s also more than just curb appeal. A study from the University of Florida published in the Preventive Medicine Reports journal found that just tending plants measurably reduced stress, anxiety, and depression, a truly useful side effect of filling your gardenIf you pick the right flowers, you’ll be doing local pollinators a favour too. According to research published in the journal Environmental Entomology, annual ornamental flowers can provide meaningful supplemental foraging resources for pollinator communities, so you’re filling your garden and doing local bees a favour at the same time.Here are seven fast-growing annuals worth sowing this month.Cosmos: The Easy Crowd-PleaserCosmos are pretty much foolproof. They’ll germinate in about a week and bloom in 50 to 60 days, one of the quickest payoffs in the annual world. They come in colours ranging from soft blush and white to hot pink and magenta, and bees love them to bits. For taller varieties to anchor a border, try Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Purity,’ a classic white that can reach five feet in good conditions.Zinnias: Bright, cheerful, and very forgivingIf you’re new to growing from seed, zinnias are your friend. They love full sun and warm, well-drained soil, conditions most of the US has in abundance by May. Expect blooms around 8–10 weeks after germination, so plan for August colour. The newer bi-colored varieties, such as Queeny Red Line, have a real showstopper quality.Nasturtiums: The edible super-achieverNasturtiums are likely the most useful flower on this list. Fast, easy, forgiving of poor soil, and their flowers and leaves are delicious in a summer salad. They are also used as a companion plant in vegetable gardens, where they can help repel common pests. The vintage variety ‘Empress of India’ produces stunning crimson-scarlet flowers against deep green foliage; old-fashioned in the best way.
A garden in full bloom doesn’t happen by accident; the right flowers, planted at the right time, make all the difference. Image Credits: Google Gemini
Orlaya: A florist’s secretOrlaya, or lace flower (commonly called), is a delicate white umbellifer, an annual that flowers in about 8–10 weeks from sowing, and is rather less known than the others, but well worth looking for. It looks expensive, and that’s probably why wedding florists use it all the time, but it’s really simple to grow. It grows to about two feet tall, so it’s great for filling in gaps in the front of a border without blocking the view of what’s behind it.Cerinthe: The icebreaker vesselHoneywort, also known as cerinthe, is one of those plants that makes people stop and ask what it is. The arching blue-green stems and deep purple bracts have an almost succulent quality that bees can’t resist. It grows to three feet, tolerates drought once established, and self-seeds prolifically, meaning you plant it once and it pretty much takes care of itself from there. Before planting, soak seeds in water for 12 hours to improve germination.Ammi majus: Wildflower-chic and wispyQueen Anne’s Lace is getting its moment in the cut flower sun, and for good reason. Its soft white domes of tiny flowers look easy and wild in a vase or woven into an existing border. Sow directly into finely raked soil or in small cell trays for more control. It tolerates partial shade, making it a more versatile annual than most on this list.Cornflowers: The original cottage garden favouriteFew flowers are as reliably cheerful as a drift of true-blue cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus). They take about 2 months to flower from sowing, and they love being direct sown; they hate being transplanted. For something a bit different from classic blue, try the ‘Black Ball’ variety, which has deep velvety purple blooms that look wonderful against silver-green stems. Plant in full sun and somewhat poor soil for best flowering.Before you go digging, one last thingOnce in the ground, regular deadheading will keep them flowering well into the fall, but as summer ends, leave a few flowers to seed, and you get free plants next year, and those seedheads become a valuable food source for birds through the colder months. This is a low-effort, high-reward garden habit that pretty much runs itself.
