Annuals are flowering plants that live for only one growing season. Though their beauty can be fleeting, and they require replanting every year, there are many benefits to adding annual blooms to your garden. Choosing a variety of annual flowers in different colors, heights, and flowering times can ensure you have all-season color; filling gaps between perennial blooms. Since they only last one year, you can experiment with new types, colors, and varieties each year, evolving the look and feel of your outdoor space.
Tall-growing annuals can stand out from the pack, adding layers and eye-catching beauty to a multi-tiered garden. Here are eight lofty and lavish annuals that will bring your garden to new heights.
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Love Lies Bleeding
Love Lies Bleeding (Amaranthus Caudatus) can grow from 3 to 8 feet tall and blooms in dangling tassels of tiny scarlet flowers. The colorful, pillowy blossoms look ethereal yet also like a character out of Sesame Street. Although this heirloom plant has a flare for the dramatic, it’s easy to grow, and tolerant of full sun, partial shade, and drought. It looks stunning in a hanging basket or draped over a white picket fence.
Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate
Another exotic heirloom plant, Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate (Persicaria Orientale) grows to heights of 4 to 7 feet in full sun to partial shade. The tiny fuchsia pink flowers bloom in tasseled bunches, almost like a delicate grapevine. Though quite tall, the flowers hang down at eye-level for your viewing pleasure, and the large heart-shaped leaves only add to the appeal. You’ll enjoy this flower from July till frost, and it will attract your favorite pollinators.
Billy Goat Weed
For something a little different, Billy Goat Weed (Ageratum Conyzoides) is a fun choice. Its small blooms of lavender, pink, or white look like soft sea urchins perched in clusters atop soft, hairy stems. This annual herb can grow from 2 to 4 feet tall in most conditions and is an excellent pollinator for many insects.
Sunflower
A list of tall-growing annuals would not be complete without sunflowers. As its name would suggest, these plants thrive in full sun, and are heliotropic, meaning their flowers move with the sun throughout the day. There are many varieties of sunflowers, some for small spaces grow to just about a foot while larger varieties can grow up to 16 feet high! Sunflowers are heat and pest tolerant, maturing in about 80 to 95 days with their large flowers that last all summer long. To top it off, their seeds are not only edible but can be used to make natural dyes.
Zinnia
For a towering rainbow of color to fill your garden, look no further than the zinnia. This plant grows up to 8 feet tall, with bright singular flowers atop long straight stems. Their daisy-like flowers bloom all summer long in nearly every color under the sun, attracting bees and butterflies and resisting deer and drought. They love full sun and good air circulation and you can even let their seeds scatter with the hope of reseeding for the next season.
Spider flower
The Spider Flower (Cleome) is a fantastic choice if you’re looking to add some variety in shape and texture to your garden. Its flowers, which sit atop spiky leaf-laden stems of around 3 to 6 feet, are an intricate and beautiful mess of color and texture. The squid-like blossoms of pink, purple, and white with long spindly stamens jutting out in every direction are just begging to be admired.
Larkspur
Larkspur (Consolida Ajacis) grows up to 4 feet tall with clusters of jewel-toned flowers along the top half of the stem that bloom in the early summer. This cool weather annual’s showy blooms come in blue, purple, and sometimes pink or white. It attracts bees and butterflies to your garden or landscape.
Verbena
There are plenty of flowers that are technically perennials but often grow as annuals. This can be due to blooming patterns or temperature tolerances. Verbena is a tall-growing perennial that blooms best during its first season, but rest assured, it’s worth replanting each season. Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds will flock to these 4 to 6-foot-tall blossoms, and their clusters of delicate purple flowers will last from spring to fall.
Annuals for Days
There are so many colorful and plentiful options for tall-growing annual flowers. These plants add interest to your outdoor space and are the best types of flowers for cutting. Transport their beauty to inside your home or gift a bouquet to a loved one.
Which tall-growing annuals are you planning to try out this year? Share in the comments below.
