• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About
  • Garden
  • Home
  • Mom & Baby
    • Baby Loss
  • Beauty & Style
  • Shop
    • Shop My Instagram
    • Shop My Amazon Storefront
    • Shop Oils Kits
    • Gift Guides
  • Nav Widget Area

    • Bloglovin
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

Christine Covino

- The Blog -

Cool Season Flowers and Hardy Annuals for Cold Climates

November 1, 2022 / Gardening

Looking to stir up some drama in your garden during the cooler weather that winter brings? Well, do I have the solution for you! Just when you thought flower season was coming to an end or spring season blooms will never come, think again. Hardy annuals are just that–tough and enduring, and the best part is they have an intense color palette that livens up even the darkest days. All of these cool season flowers have the wow factor, especially when planted in clusters. Bring the outside in with cut flowers so the show can continue during winter!

What to Know About Hardy Annuals

Hardy annuals are flowers that have a blooming season of 12 months. They earn the title of hardy annuals because not only do they last through the cold climate that winter brings on, but they thrive in it! These cool season flowers mentioned in this post are some of the best and prettiest hardy annuals you will find!

Cool Season Flowers and Hardy Annuals

 Here’s my pick for the showiest hardy annuals that are great cool season flowers. Most of these cool season flowers require little fertilizing except at planting but I’ve noted where extra supplementation may be needed.

Best Types of Cool Season Flowers:

Larkspur hardy annual flowers

Larkspur hardy annual flowers

Larkspur Flowers

Latin: Consolida ajacis

My pick: Cloudy Skies

The delicate orchid-like bloom on these larkspurs is only enhanced by their purply-blue and silvery-white clustered petals that march up a sturdy dark green stalk. 

Larkspur is best planted from seeds that have been chilled for a few weeks. Just put them in a baggie in your refrigerator and let them get comfortable. Then plant! 

This is a hardy plant for early spring or fall if you are in a warmer climate. Another benefit is that larkspurs are self-seeding so make a permanent place for them to call home. Deadhead often to stretch out the bloom time which can range from early spring to late fall and in warmer climates, into the winter.

Caution: seeds are poisonous. 

Sun requirements: full sun

Planting time: early spring or early fall

Height: Up to 3 feet tall

Zones 2-11

cool season hardy annual flowers
cool season hardy annual flowers

Snapdragon Flowers

Latin: Antirrhinum majus

My pick: Madame Butterfly Ivory and Bronze

These colors and petal shapes just scream romance to me! Brozne and ivory double butterfly petals with dabs of yellow near the centers, branch out on green stalks covered with tiny hairs. I love how they start blooming near the bottom and then work their way up! 

Plant in well- draining soil and harvest or deadhead to encourage more blooms. Snapdragons require hortonova staking as they are at all and prolific bloomer, throwing new stems consistently from March to October.

Snapdragon’s fragrant stalks repel deer but attract pollinators. A win-win! Did I mention the flowers are edible?

Sun requirements: full sun

Planting time: early spring or early fall

Height: 2-3 feet and may require staking

Zones 7-11

cool season hardy annual flowers
cool season hardy annual flowers

 

Iceland Poppies Flowers

Latin: Papaver nudicaule

My pick: La Dolce Vita

Iceland Poppies do not originate from Iceland! Their roots go back to subpolar regions of Europe, North America, and the mountains of central Asia. These cool weather lovers come in a range of colors, but I prefer the Champagne Bubbles Scarlet variety because of its soft pink and peach-colored ruffled petals that resemble crepe paper and sit atop a fuzzy leafless stem. What a showstopper!

Iceland poppies bloom from May to July and like most flowers, do best when harvested and deadheaded frequently. Remember to lightly water as poppy blight, a whitish-gray fungus, can invade the stems if soil gets soggy. To harvest pick stems when the bud is just cracking color and burn the ends of the stems with an open flame for 7-10 seconds. This helps immensely with case life!

Iceland poppies come in a variety of colors ranging from orange, yellow, pink, and salmon, to white and are deer resistant. 

Sun requirements: full sun

Planting time: early spring or early fall

Height: 1-2 feet tall

Zones: 2-9

Sweet Peas Flowers

Latin: Lathyrus odoratus

My Pick: Mammoth Blend

Velvet purple, peachy salmon, petal pink, bright white, crimson red, periwinkle blue, dusty lavender are the multi-color range you’ll find with Mammoth Blend. These sweet peas are large, early bloomers sporting long stems perfect for bouquets. Native to the Mediterranean, these stunning climbers are drought resistant, hardy, and easy to grow. And they attract bees!

To help with germination, seeds should be soaked in water overnight. Dig in bone meal and a balanced fertilizer at the time of planting, then fertilize monthly during the growing season.

Did you know sweet peas are a member of the legume family? Don’t eat them though as they are toxic! 

Sun requirements: full sun or partial shade

Planting time: early spring for late summer blooms or early fall for early (think February/March) for blooms in warmer climates.

Height: 6-8 feet tall. Will need a fence or trellis to support the vining peas.

Zones: 3-8

Orach hardy annual flower stems with seed pods laying on a wooden table

Orach Flowers

Latin: Atriplex hortensis

My pick: Ruby Gold

Orach is a prolific plant for many reasons: as a landscape ornamental, as a textured filler bouquets or for garden veggie growing.  The deep reddish-purple leaves, shaped like a large arrow, can be used in place of spinach or Swiss chard. This ancient veggie has been called a superfood. Eat the leaves and young stems raw or cooked for a bolt of nutrition. The red leaves will turn green after cooking and tinge the water pink, like with red chard.

Its eye-catching foliage is a glowing acid-green, and stalks are streaked with cranberry. Early in the season, harvest the young leafy stems for an excellent spring bouquet addition.

Harvest orach from June until the first frost and pinch before it goes to seed to continue leaf growth. If plants are left to grow, you’ll be rewarded with gorgeous seedy stems that are wonderful in large, mid summer arrangements. Seeds are a blend of dusty rose and sunbleached moss which I love for their color and texture in summer bouquets!

Sun requirements: full sun to partial sun

Planting time: early spring for late summer harvest or early fall for winter harvest in warmer climates.

Height: 2-6 feet tall 

Zones: 3-8

Moluccella laevis (Bells-of-Ireland, Bells of Ireland, Molucca balmis, Shellflower, Shell flower) is a summer flowering hardy annual, native to Turkey, Syria and the Caucasus.

Bells of Ireland Flowers

Latin: Molucella laevis

My pick: Pixie Bells

Bells of Ireland, also called shell flower, is a summer flowering annual, native to Turkey, Syria and the Caucasus. These flowers have been cultivated since the 1500s and are a symbol of good luck.

Densely packed pale to emerald green tubular bells enclose tiny white flowers with a lime green calyx on sturdy green stalks. I happen to love these flowers as they remind me of leprechauns and St. Patty’s Day! A great addition to any garden, Pixie Bells add a splash of light green color a bit different from the purples and pinks and give you many cutting blooms as well, lasting up to two weeks in a vase.

These seeds do best when chilled for two weeks prior to planting to help speed up germination, which can take 12-21 days.

Plant in moist and well-drained soil and fertilize monthly for blooms from summer through fall.

Cool weather Bells of Ireland are deer and rabbit resistant. 

Sun requirements: full sun to partial sun

Planting time: early spring 

Height: 2-3 feet tall and may require staking

Zones: 4-9

Woman holding a bouquet of Nigella (Love-in-a-mist) hardy annual flowers

Love-in-a-Mist Flowers

Latin: Nigella damascena

My Pick: Miss Jekyll Dark Blue

If this just isn’t the most gorgeous of the annuals, I don’t know what is. Flowers of periwinkle blue with double ragged-edged petals and leaves that are more like feathery, delicate tendrils resembling fennel or dill, are simply captivating!  A symbol of unrequited love, Love-in-a-Mist comes from southern Europe and Northern Africa and is also called Nigella.

This flower is good to mix in borders, use in hanging baskets, bouquets and is a natural to combine with Bachelor’s Buttons and Bells of Ireland.

Love-in-a-Mist is best grown from seed and has a short bloom period. For successive blooms, plant seeds every three weeks. These plants love well drained soil, and an introduction of fertilizer at planting. Deadhead to keep the blooms coming.

This cottage variety flowers July to September, is rarely affected by pests and is low maintenance. After the petals drop, another show is on the way! The seedpod is just as beguiling as the flower with upright thin green stamens caressing green seed pods streaked with dusty burgundy mauve. Beautiful and great in flower arrangements.

Sun requirements: full sun 

Planting time: March to September

Height: 1-2 feet tall 

Zones: 2-11

Feverfew hardy annual flowers growing in the field

Bright blue Bachelor's Buttons hardy annual flowers growing in a field

Bachelor’s Buttons Flowers

Latin:

My Pick: Blue Boy

Native to Europe, Bachelor’s Buttons, also called cornflower, have a story. It seems that bachelors wore this flower in their jacket button holes to show ladies they were available. Wouldn’t that be fun today? 

The variety Blue Boy drew me in with its deep amethyst blue petals that fan slightly upward as if protecting their deeper blue, white-tipped stamens. Really stunning!

Bachelor’s Buttons are best grown from seed and would like to be fertilized in early spring and throughout the summer. They are an early bloomer and will carry on until the first frost.

This low maintenance flower with its light fragrance is also edible. Use as a garnish, or dry for a tea. By the way, Bachelor’s Buttons are fantastic pollinators!

Sun requirements: full sun to partial sun

Planting time: early spring 

Height: 1-3 feet tall 

Zones: 2-11

As most of you know, I LOVE color, texture, and dramatic clusters of flowers and you will have it all in spades when you include some of these cool season hardy annuals into your garden mix. I know I will be planting orach this spring!

If you loved this post on cool season flowers, I think you’d love these ones too:

How to Prune Hydrangeas for Fall

The 7 Best Perennial Cut Flowers

Fall Bulbs to Plant for Spring Blooms

signature

Subscribe to the Blog!


Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Meet Christine!

Click here to learn more about me!

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Instagram

JOIN THE TRIBE

______________________________

Thank You!


You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

Recent Posts

7 Winter Gardening To-Do’s

How to Read Seed Catalogs and Seed Packets

Categories

  • Baby Loss
  • Beauty & Style
  • Gardening
  • Gift Guides
  • Home
  • Lifestyle
  • Mom & Baby
  • Travel
  • Wellness

Trending Posts

How to Survive the First Weeks of Breastfeeding

Holiday Gifts for the New Mom

essentail oils - Holiday Gifts for Her

Stocking Stuffer Gift Ideas

These gooey chocolate chip cookies are not only easy to make, but taste delcious. I love making these becuase they are so easy even kids can help.

GOOEY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Copyright © 2023 · Christine Covino · Site Credit · Branding by High Note Designs · Privacy Policy

 

Loading Comments...