If you have an orchid garden, one of your perennial questions has to be, “How do you keep annuals alive all year round?” This is a tough question to answer for most people who are new to orchids. But I have spent much of my career working with orchids, and in my experience, the easiest way to maintain a beautiful garden throughout the year is to make sure that we flower them in spring, summer, and fall, and not let them go into dormancy in the winter.
Annuals don’t “die” in the winter, at least not until they are exposed to cold weather. (If you want to know how to take care of perennials in the winter, read about it here.) To survive, your perennial flowers should be planted in late spring, packed away in loose soil in the bottom of a closet or basement, and left out in the cold weather. Plant them about one foot deep and add about a foot of topsoil if you plan on planting them in full sun.
Of course, your garden doesn’t just bloom in the winter. You will also have to give your perennials water. If you wait until after their bloom in the fall, you may be waiting a long time before you get to them. If you plant your flowers in the winter, you will have to water them often between their blooms. They will have tiny flowers, and their roots will probably go into the ground in the fall. And you will have to dig the roots up and replant them in the winter, or you will have lost a lot of time and money planting them.
Can you keep annuals alive all year? Of course you can. The trick is knowing how much room you have in your garden to grow them. Annuals don’t “steal” sun from other plants’ leaves. That’s why annuals are best planted in the shade.
To keep annuals alive all year round, you need to plan where they will be planted and how much sun they will get. In the fall, when the flowers come out, you can plant annuals about one foot deep in the bed of soil, with about six inches between them. That will give them room to grow. (And if you are having trouble getting your plants to produce flowers, try hatching some.)
In the summer, however, you should plant your annuals deeper, so they receive as much sun as possible. In general, the deeper you plant your annuals, the better. In the fall, you can dig the beds about two feet deep, depending on what variety you’re growing. Then, place the annuals in about three inch deep containers lined with gravel or stones, which will hold in the heat and provide a good home for them.
When you want to know how to keep annuals alive all year round, you have to make sure that they get enough sunlight. It can be hard to plant them in shady areas, because their roots don’t like it. But you can supplement your sunny areas by reporting them with a shallow container of well-rotted compost.
When you want to know how to keep annuals alive all year round, you have to give them a lot of water. They need plenty of water for their roots, and they also depend on soil nutrients for root growth. And, although it sounds like a no-brainer, you really should water your annuals when the soil is dry. This will help prevent the roots of your plants from drying out. You just need to wait for the right occasion to water them.