Easy Annuals for the West Coast

What annuals grow well with our rainy springs and cooler summers? I started another thread about annuals that are supposed to be easy to grow, but are not. Please share your success with annuals that are well suited to our weather.

 

California poppy.

 

Pansies love cooler temps and I always have to water alot, Coleus likes lots of water and do fine as long as no frost, Aquilegia is another that likes it cooler. Janet

 

Hey flowercents, I wanted to get back to this thread.

I had great success with Nicotiana sylvestris last year, although tobaccos are usually warm weather favourites. Try lobelia, pansies and violas, snapdragons, hollyhock, larkspur and other poppies. Look for cool weather annuals in catalogs, think English cottage garden.

I have had success with cosmos, but you can't plant them too early. Petunias should also do well if planted out when it is warm enough.

 

Nicotiana sylvestris is a perennial which has been hardy for me for several years. Petunias do great for me, as well as the small flowered ones (Million Bells). I have to agree to California Poppy but they do re-seed a lot.

 

Cosmos but you need to stake and support them as they grow. They grow well for me in 6 hrs of sun on the coast of Vancouver Island. They grow to 6 ft high and 3 ft wide with lots of flowers all summer and fall. I plant mine in 2 rows of 12" apart in good draining soil for the backdrop in front of my deck. I add mushroom manure in early spring and mid summer. They tolerate dry conditions mid summer when I haven't time to water. Great focul point. I also grow them along the property border tied to a 4ft wire fence which effectively creates an attractive, dense privacy fence that fills in the gaps between the trees. A multi purpose annual unique to the West Coast and also totally deer tolerant. Cheers!

 

Thanks for all your ideas. I've grown some of the plants mentioned, most with good success, except for the cosmos and hollyhock. Cosmos never grow well for me and my hollyhock had rust, so I pulled it out. I will try growing poppies this year.

 

impaitions do well in shade like cool wet come in lots of colors

 

Well, maybe not strictly annuals, but as easy as:

"Jackpot" tansy, Tanacetum
Limnanthes (Poached Egg Flower)
Cleome
Marigolds!
Those wonderful old fashioned poppies (WestCoast Seeds carries lots)
Feverfew (I have one that has lovely golden lime green foliage...it pops up here and there on its own and is always a good accent)
Foxglove
Morning glories
Nemesia
Lavatera
Zinnias (great for bouquets)
Rudbeckias (bloom first year from seed)