Hardy Annuals vs. Heat-Loving Annuals: How to Have Blooms All Season Long
If you've ever planted a packet of flower seeds, waited patiently, and then watched them struggle to grow… there's a good chance you planted the wrong flower at the wrong time.
Don't worry. It happens to everyone!
But once you understand the difference between flower types, everything will click into place.
Not all Annual cut flowers are created the same!
Some annuals love the cold. ❄️
Some love the heat. 🔥
If you plant them at the wrong time, they will STRUGGLE.
If you plant them at the right time, they will THRIVE.
In this blog post, I’ll teach you about the 2 types of Annual cut flowers we grow on our farm and how we treat them very differently.
❄️Hardy Annuals: The Cool-Weather Lovers
Hardy Annuals are the early bloomers of the flower world.
They're frost-tolerant, cold-loving plants that require cool conditions to thrive. This group includes flowers such as:
Ammi / Dara
Bachelor Buttons
Bells of Ireland
Chinese Forget-Me-Not
Corncockle (Agrostemma)
Larkspur
Nigella (Love-in-a-Mist)
Orlaya
Pennycress
Sweet Sultan
These flowers bloom in late spring and early summer, which typically is June here in Michigan (summer officially begins on June 21ish). Hardy Annuals are great because they help to fill the “Awkward Gap Season”, the time of year between spring bulbs (Tulips, Daffodils, etc) and the heat-loving summer annuals (Sunflowers, Zinnias, Celosia, etc).
But here’s the catch with Hardy Annuals: they have to be planted EARLY. Waaay earlier than you’d think! Depending on where you live and your climate, Hardy Annuals should be planted in the fall, winter, or very early spring (March and April).
The general rule of thumb is that Hardy Annuals should be planted 4-8 weeks before your average last spring frost.
Example: My average last spring frost is May 15. I need to plant Hardy Annuals between March 15 and April 15.
Yup, the weather is likely going to be cold. You might still be getting snow, sleet, and everything in between (the kind of weather that makes it miserable to be outside!). That’s ok. Hardy Annuals adore cold, wet weather.
If you wait until the weather is warm and pleasant to plant them? You've already missed the window. So sad! Trust me. You’ve got to get out there when it’s cold, wet and muddy. Miserable for you, but perfect conditions for them!
By the time summer heat rolls in, Hardy Annuals are declining. They are NOT heat-tolerant, and they will start dying when it gets too hot (if I were a flower type, I’d 100% be Hardy Annual. I also wilt and feel like I’m dying in hot weather. Ha!).
Most Hardy Annuals are done blooming and going to seed by mid-July.
If you've had bad luck with Hardy Annuals in the past, you likely planted them too late.
[Want to learn my favorite method for planting Hardy Annuals? Read all about the S.T.U.N. Method here]
🔥Heat-Loving Annuals: The Summer Stars
On the flip side, we have the Tender Annuals, or as I like to call them, the Heat-Loving Annuals.
These plants cannot tolerate frost, and they won't really get going until the weather warms up.
There is no point in trying to plant these Heat-Loving Annuals earlier. They will sulk and pout in cooler weather. They want HOT weather, not cool spring weather.
We plant them after our average last spring frost (around May 15 here in Michigan, with many people aiming for Memorial Day weekend), but I find the seedlings that I plant in June and July (when it’s HOT!🔥) grow even better and faster than the ones planted in May.
Here are some Tender Annuals that thrive in the heat of summer:
These flowers begin blooming in midsummer (July) and keep going strong right through September. They're your workhorse summer bouquet flowers.
“Flipping beds”, a.k.a. Using every square inch of your planting area
Now that you know about the difference between Hardy Annuals and Heat-Loving Annuals, let me share a great tip.
On our farm, every square inch matters. So instead of letting our Hardy Annual beds sit there taking up space after they start to decline in July, we flip the beds.
“Flipping beds” means removing one crop and replacing it with another crop, to ensure that the growing bed is as productive as possible.
In mid-July, we rip out or cut back the Hardy Annuals and immediately plant trays* of heat-loving Annual transplants into those same beds (if your growing season is long enough, you could even simply direct sow crops like Cosmos, Sunflowers, and Zinnias!).
The Hardy Annuals give us beautiful blooms from June through early July.
The Tender Annuals bloom August through October (until our first fall frost).
This is the beauty of growing Hardy Annuals AND Heat-Loving Annuals. You can grow them in the same location, since they bloom at different times.
*This method DOES require planning ahead. We know we’ll want to plant Heat-Loving Annual seedlings around July 15, so we count backwards about 4-6 weeks and make a note on the calendar to start seeds around early June so we’ll have transplants ready to go.
Timing Is Everything: A Simple Rule of Thumb
Timing is SO IMPORTANT.
These plants are easy to grow IF they are planted at the correct time of year.
❄️Hardy Annuals → Plant 4-8 weeks before your average last spring frost. For many of us, this means late winter or early spring.
🔥Heat-Loving Annuals → Plant after your average last spring frost, once the threat of frost has passed. The warmer the weather, the faster and better they will grow.
If you plant Hardy Annuals too late, they won’t thrive.
If you plant Heat-Loving Annuals too early, they won’t thrive.
Plant the right flowers, in the right season, at the right time?
Success!
Tips for Beginners
Tip #1
If you’re an absolute beginner, I recommend starting with Heat-Loving Annuals. These plants are so easy to grow.
Once you feel more confident, you can explore the world of Hardy Annual flowers. These plants are also easy to grow, but getting the timing right is trickier.
Most people have a really hard time wrapping their heads around planting so early in the season! They are worried that they are going to kill the Hardy Annuals by planting them too early… when in reality, the thing that kills them is planting too late.
It can be very difficult to trust the process!
Tip #2
Many Hardy Annuals prefer to be direct sown right into the garden. In fact, some of them perform very poorly when transplanted.
I highly recommend direct sowing:
Larkspur
Nigella (Love-in-a-Mist)
Orlaya
Pennycress
Peppergrass
Tip #3
Plants germinate and grow faster when planted around the Summer Solstice. June 21ish is the longest day of the year, with the most available sunlight.
When I direct-sow Zinnia seeds on May 15, it takes about 75 days for the plants to germinate, grow, and bloom.
When I sow Zinnia seeds around the Summer Solstice, they germinate, grow, and bloom in about 45 days!
Take advantage of those long days and don’t be afraid to sow/plant later than you think you can!
Ready to plant?
Check out a selection of our favorite, top performing cut flower seeds.
Tears in the Garden
A Good Friday meditation about the garden.
*I wrote this essay over a decade ago. Praying and planting seeds has become part of my Good Friday ritual since that time. I highly recommend getting out in your garden if possible. God has so many powerful revelations to teach us through His creation.
Here in Michigan, when I plant peas on Good Friday, they ripen right around the Summer Solstice, the first day of Summer. Remembering the sorrow of the planting day makes the sweetness of the peas on a summer day that much more precious.
Easter Sunday is coming, friends.
But first, we have to live through Good Friday.
The older I become, the more emotional I am on Good Friday. The older I become, the more overwhelmed I am by the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus. The older I become, the more significance I find in simple things. Like gardening.
Today I went out to the garden to plant the first seeds of the season and talk to God. (We have our best conversations in the garden.) After a bitter, cold spring, the ground finally thawed enough to plant peas. It seemed fitting — a good day to bury seeds that look dead and dormant, but will soon burst forth with new life.
![20170413_083434_HDR[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/582b872529687fd6acb7423d/1492088605762-4U83ZNMFLC5FH5DQUOPU/20170413_083434_HDR%5B1%5D.jpg)
The garden beds were ready and waiting, prepared last fall. After a bit of raking to smooth the soil, I dug shallow furrows and began to place the seeds one by one.
And that's when I found myself with tears streaming down my face, drenching the soil near my hands.
I'm not entirely sure I can explain it.
Maybe it was the cold air, or the quiet, or just the weight of the day.
But kneeling there in the dirt, something in me cracked open.
All the hard and heavy things I'd been carrying… the ways I'd fallen short, the grief I'd been holding, the places in my life that felt broken beyond repair… I laid them down in that furrow, right alongside the seeds.
And then I covered them up.
With each swipe of my hand, the seeds disappeared beneath the soil. And I thought about how that is exactly what Jesus came to do. To take what is broken and heavy and hand it back to us made new.
This ugly, wrinkled, insignificant, dead-looking seed will grow. It will push up through the dark soil and become something strong and alive. It will produce food that nourishes and sustains. Beauty from ashes.
Jesus takes what looks ruined… the broken places, the hard seasons, the parts of our lives that feel beyond saving… and He transforms them into something whole. Something that can bring hope and healing to others.
I left that garden lighter than I arrived. Ready to grow.
Transformation in the garden isn't just for plants. It's for people, too.
Today I shared tears in the garden with my Savior. But Sunday is coming, friends. Today we sit with the sorrow… and in two days, everything changes.
I hope you'll join me.
The S.T.U.N. Growing Method for Hardy Annuals
The growing method that lets nature do the heavy lifting.
Have you ever heard of the "S.T.U.N." growing method?
It's my favorite method ever!
I was first introduced to this method in the book Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepherd.
Mark highly recommends this approach for a variety of crops, and once you understand what it stands for, you'll see why it's perfect for overwhelmed flower growers:
S - Sheer
T - Total
U - Utter
N - Neglect
Yes, that's right, folks, there are some plants out there that actually THRIVE on neglect!
In fact, I've discovered that the harder you try to grow them (pamper them, fuss over them), the worse they do!
The Flowers That Love to Be Ignored
Over the years, I've discovered that many Hardy Annual cut flowers absolutely love the "S.T.U.N." growing method. These include (but are not limited to):
Agrostemma (Corn Cockle)
Ammi/Dara
Bachelor Buttons
Bells of Ireland
Chinese Forget-Me-Not
Larkspur
Nigella (Love-in-a-Mist)
Orlaya
Pennycress
Saponaria (Soapwort)
Sweet Sultan
What Makes Hardy Annuals Different?
Hardy Annuals are frost/freeze-tolerant, and they actually perform BEST when sown and grown in cool weather.
Most of them also don't like to be transplanted, so direct sowing them where you want them to grow often works better than transplants. (My transplanted Hardy Annuals are ALWAYS shorter and less productive than the direct-sown plants. Every. Single. Time.)
How to Embrace the S.T.U.N. Method
My best advice for growing Hardy Annuals?
Embrace the "S.T.U.N." growing method and mimic how they grow in nature.
Instead of trying to fuss over them in trays indoors, go outside and sow the seeds either in the fall, winter, or early spring.
Last year, I direct sowed all my Hardy Annuals in February, when we had a thaw. I literally sprinkled the seeds where I wanted them to grow.
After sowing them in February, I did absolutely nothing to care for them. I just let nature do the work. The seeds were rained on, snowed on, sleeted on… and when the time was right, they germinated and grew.
In June, I had rows and rows of beautiful blooms to harvest… all because of the "S.T.U.N" growing method.
Your Turn
Give it a try and I think you'll see why I love it so much!
Sometimes the best thing we can do for our gardens (and ourselves) is to step back and let nature handle it.*
*Revolutionary concept, I know.
5 Easy to Grow Cut Flowers for Beginners
Tried-and-true flowers for the cutting garden. Find the list here!
Have you ever wanted to try growing cut flowers… but didn’t know where to begin?
You’re not alone! Many people have asked me to share ideas about easy to grow cut flowers.
I’ll be the first to admit that growing flowers is not nearly as easy as it looks, but these flowers listed below will likely thrive and provide you with some beautiful blooms, even if you are a complete beginner.
After growing hundreds of different flowers, I’ve narrowed it down to just a few to get you started.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and you’ll likely want to branch out later and grow more varieties… but this is a great start!
The flowers on this list were chosen because:
They can be Direct Sown. This means you can simply plant the seeds in your garden, water them and they will grow. No need to start them indoors first or purchase transplants.
They are annuals, meaning they will grow from seed to bloom in one season.
They are beautiful in bouquets!
All of these flowers can be Direct Sown into your garden after the threat of a spring frost is over.
Don’t know when your Average Last Spring Frost is? Simply Google “average last spring frost ______________” and insert the name of your town.
Cosmos
Cosmos are by far one of my favorite flowers. The blooms are ridiculously romantic and endearing. They prefer to be Direct Sown and will provide you with weeks and weeks of blooms from just one planting. The more you cut them, the more they produce, so be sure to cut deep into the plant.
Cosmos are beautiful in mixed bouquets or in bunches all by themselves. They add whimsy, air and movement to mixed bouquets and I like to include them in almost every arrangement.
They come in a wide variety of pink, white, burgundy and even pale yellow. Some have single rows of petals, while others are lush and ruffled.
You can also use the lacy Cosmos foliage (leaves) as greenery for your bouquets.
Helpful Hint: Harvest stems/sprays of flowers right as they are beginning to break out of the bud stage (when you can just see the petals starting to unfurl). If harvested at this stage, you can expect 5-7 days of vase life. If harvested after the flowers are fully open, you’ll only get 2-3 days of vase life.
Favorite Varieties:
“Tip Top Picotee” Cosmos
"Apricotta” Cosmos
“Kiiro” Cosmos
“Afternoon White” Cosmos
“Double Click Mix” Cosmos
Zinnias
Everyone seems to love Zinnias! Their bright cheery colors seem to scream “Summer!” and they are easy to grow.
Zinnias prefer to be Direct Sown. They grow quickly and like Cosmos, the more you cut them, the more they produce, so don’t be afraid to cut deep into the plant. Deep cuts signal the plant to produce even more flowers!
Depending on where you live, Zinnias can succumb to Powdery Mildew during stretches of hot humid weather. Try planting seeds every few weeks to extend your growing season and remove diseased plants.
Helpful Hint: Cut Zinnias after they are fully open. Zinnias are considered to be a “Dirty Flower”, meaning they muck up the vase water quickly. Be sure to change the water daily or add one drop of bleach to the water.
Favorite Varieties:
“Oklahoma Salmon” Zinnia
“Oklahoma Carmine Rose” Zinnia
“Queen Lime Orange” Zinnia
“Sunset Mix” Zinnia
“Romantic Mix” Zinnia
“Rainbow Mix” Zinnia
Sunflowers
Sunflowers might just be the epitome of summer! Their bright cheery faces never fail to lift our spirits.
They also happen to be very easy to grow and they love to be Direct Sown. Unfortunately, many animals also like to eat sunflower seeds, so you may need to cover the planting area with a sheet or netting to save your seeds from birds and squirrels until the plants have germinated and established.
Sunflowers come in 2 categories: Branching (plant seeds 18” apart) or Single Stem (plant seeds 4” apart).
Branching will give you multiple blooms over a week or two. Single stems produce 1 flower per seed.
Direct Sow sunflowers starting at your average last spring frost date, and continue planting them every 2 weeks until mid summer to have a constant supply of blooms.
Helpful Hint: Harvest sunflowers when just 1 or 2 petals have started to lift/unfurl. The flower will continue to open in the vase and give you nearly a week of vase life. If cut when fully open, only expect a few days in the vase.
Favorite Varieties:
“Pro Cut Gold Lite DRM” Sunflower
“Ruby Eclipse” Sunflower
“Sunrich Summer Provence” Sunflower
Amaranth
Amaranth seeds may be tiny… but these plants can grow to nearly 8 ft tall!
These heat-loving plants grow best when they are direct-sown into the garden when the soil is warm. We usually wait until June or July to sow them. They grow FAST and will be towering over you before you know it! Be sure to provide them with some support and grow them at the back of your garden so they don’t shade out the other flowers.
They are lovely in fall arrangements or grow them for fall decor.
Amaranth comes in 2 main types:
Spike (or spire) - upright flower heads
Trailing - cascading, draping flower heads (these are in demand for large wedding arches and installations)
These fun, easy-to-grow plants are quite the conversation starter. They also produce seeds that birds love, and the leaves of the plant taste like spinach. If we have Amaranth leftover at the end of the season, we harvest it and feed it to our goats and chickens. :)
Helpful Hint: If you want to keep the plants smaller and shorter, I recommend pinching the plants (cutting off the top few inches) when they are about knee high. This will cause the plants to branch and produce multiple smaller stems, instead of one large stem.
Favorite Variety:
“Coral Fountain” Amaranth
“Fercita” Amaranth
“Autumn’s Touch” Amaranth
Amaranth in bouquets
Amaranth we forgot to pinch!
Ageratum
Ageratum won’t earn any awards for being the flashiest flower out there, but it is reliably productive! Plant it once, and you’ll have an entire summer’s worth of beautiful textural purple, pink, and white blooms that are absolutely perfect in bouquets.
This is a true “cut and come again” flower that will produce flowers for months if harvested regularly.
As a bonus, Ageratum is a “double duty” plant in the cutting garden. Its foliage is perfect for bouquets. We grow some Ageratum for flowers and some for foliage (we just keep cutting the plants and harvest before they form the flower heads). If you’re always searching for more foliage for your bouquets, Ageratum is your friend!
Ageratum thrives in hot weather, and it will readily self-sow.
Helpful Hint: Harvest when most of the fuzzy flowers are open.
Favorite Variety:
“Timeless Mix” Ageratum
Ageratum Foliage
There you have it! 5 easy to grow flowers that are sure to delight.
All of these flowers can easily be incorporated into an existing vegetable garden, if you have the room for them! You might even notice your vegetable garden becomes more productive because of the increased pollination from bees and other pollinators! It’s a win/win situation.
Best wishes and happy planting!
Ready for more?
If you’re serious about growing the garden of your dreams this year, register for my online course, “Backyard Cutting Garden 101”. You’ll find everything you need to plan, grow, harvest and arrange your stunning blooms. I can’t WAIT to help you grow! Click on the button below for all the details.
How to Grow Daffodils: Your Complete Guide
Here on our Michigan farm, daffodils are the true harbingers of spring. After enduring a long, cold, snowy winter - and even worse, “Mud Season” (ugh!) - the sight of beautiful blooms in April reminds me that the world won't always be ugly, muddy, and depressing. Those cheerful flowers are promises that brighter days are ahead!
In late winter/early spring, I walk the farm each morning searching for the first brave daffodil shoot. What a gift to know that spring is on its way!
First daffodil of the season emerging in early March (aka “Mud Season”)!
Daffodils are steadfast, reliable, and dependable. They are tough, hardy, and they laugh at our inevitable April snowstorms each year and keep blooming cheerfully in the snow (I grow a variety called “Ice King” that always gets snowed on… and it doesn’t mind one bit!).
They look stunning whether planted in your landscape or sitting in a vase on your kitchen table.
Best of all? They're incredibly easy to grow, and they come back year after year with minimal effort.
“Yosemite Valley” Daffodil
Why You Should Grow Daffodils
They're Critter-Proof! One of the absolute best reasons to grow daffodils is that they're mostly immune to hungry wildlife. I've heard so many tales of woe from gardeners who have lost all their tulips to deer and rabbits. Unlike tulips, daffodils contain a natural toxin that animals find unappetizing, so it's highly unlikely any critters will munch on your blooms. If you struggle with deer and rabbits, and fencing isn't an option, it may be best to skip tulips altogether and grow daffodils instead.
Beautiful Variety! There are so many gorgeous daffodil varieties available. While they don't come in the full color range of tulips, they DO feature lovely shades of white, pale yellow, sunny yellow, cream, orange, tangerine, and salmon. You'll find plenty of options to brighten your garden!
Harvest Without Guilt! Unlike tulips, harvesting daffodil blooms doesn't negatively affect their blooming in subsequent years. If you harvest a tulip bloom, the bulb won't produce a flower the following year (you can read all about it in THIS BLOG POST). Daffodils have a slightly different growth habit than tulips, which means you can cut armfuls of flowers for years to come, instead of just once. How wonderful is that?
How to Plant Daffodil Bulbs
Planting daffodils is simple and easy! Here's how to get those bulbs in the ground:
Choose the Right Spot: Select a sunny location that gets at least 6 hours of sunlight with well-draining soil. Daffodils aren't fussy, but they do appreciate good drainage.
Prepare Your Planting Area: Use a bulb planter for individual bulbs or dig a hole or trench if you're planting lots of bulbs at once.
Space Your Bulbs: Plant bulbs pointy side up, about 4-6 inches apart. This gives them room to grow without crowding.
Get the Depth Right: The rule of thumb for planting depth is roughly 3 times the height of the bulb. For example, if your bulbs are about 2 inches tall, plant them about 6 inches deep.
Cover and Water: Backfill the holes or trench with soil to cover the bulbs completely. Water after planting if the soil is dry to help them settle in.
The Golden Rule of Daffodil Care: After the flowers have bloomed in spring, allow the foliage to turn brown and die back completely. This may take up to 6-8 weeks. DO NOT remove the foliage prematurely—this is how the bulb stores energy for next year's blooms! I know it's tempting to tidy up the garden, but resist the urge. Those leaves are working hard behind the scenes to ensure you get beautiful flowers again next spring.
Using Daffodils in Floral Arrangements
Here's something important to know: daffodils ooze a toxic sap from the end of their stems when they're cut. This sap will seep into the vase water and cause other flowers to expire prematurely. But don't worry—I have two solutions for you!
Option 1: Keep Them Solo (My Favorite!) Don't mix daffodils with other flowers. Bunches of mixed daffodil varieties in a vase are absolutely stunning on their own. Their cheerful blooms need no supporting cast!
Option 2: Mix Them Safely If you have your heart set on mixing daffodils with other flowers, follow these steps:
Harvest your daffodils and cut the stems to the desired length for your mixed arrangement.
Place the daffodil stems in a separate jar of water for about an hour. The sap will ooze out into the water, and the stem ends will eventually callous over and stop releasing sap.
After about an hour, pull out the daffodil stems, rinse them off, and add them to your mixed flower arrangements.
Important: Repeat this process if you trim the stem ends of the flowers in your mixed arrangement. Every time you recut the daffodil stems, they'll ooze sap again.
When to Harvest Daffodils
Most people harvest their daffodils much too late. To get the best vase life, harvest the blooms when they are in the “gooseneck stage”. This means the blooms are still closed, but you can start to see them crack open.
In the photo below, you can see the progression of how the blooms open.
The flowers on the right were harvested at the “gooseneck stage” and have been in the vase for a few hours.
The flowers in the middle were harvested 1 day earlier.
The flowers on the left were harvested 2-3 days earlier.
By harvesting at the “gooseneck stage”, you’ll extend the vase life and get to enjoy blooms for a week, instead of mere days.
Harvesting at the “gooseneck stage” also prevents damage to the blooms during harvest. If you allow the blooms to blow wide open, they will get damaged when you harvest them.
Harvesting daffodils is easy - you don’t even need scissors or flower snips! Simply slide your index finger along the stem until your finger is below the surface of the soil. Gently grasp the stem with your hand and slowly pull up. The stem will stretch like a rubber band, then it will pop!
Ready to Plant?
With their cheerful blooms, easy care, and critter-resistant nature, daffodils are a must-have for any garden. Whether you're planting them in drifts across your lawn, tucking them into flower beds, or growing them specifically for cutting, these reliable beauties will reward you with years of spring joy. Happy planting!