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Browse Plants

Narrowed By:Type: Annuals+ Characteristics: Attracts Butterflies, Attracts Hummingbirds, Self Seeds
Displaying 1 - 20 of 66 listings   1 | 2 | 3 | 4View AllNext > Sort By: Sort
Abelmoschus manihot Abelmoschus manihot
(Hibiscus manihot)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

A large ornamental okra with dinner-plate-sized, sulfur yellow flowers with dark eyes. Each flower lasts only a day—unfolding slowly in the morning and closing gradually in the evening—but the abundance of flowers open on any one day conceals their short life span.

Ageratum houstonianum Ageratum houstonianum
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

There are many cultivars available of this fast-growing annual. They are best used as bedding, edging, or container plants. Panicles of blue, pink, purple, or white flowerheads arise from oval, downy leaves in midsummer and continue until frost. They have a soft, fuzzy appearance and attract butterflies.

Ageratum houstonianum 'Blue Danube' Ageratum houstonianum 'Blue Danube'
('Blue Danube' ageratum, 'Blue Danube' floss flower)
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This early, compact bloomer grows to only about 6 or 7 inches tall. With its icy blue-purple flowers, it works well when planted tightly along the foreground of a bed. Its color blends easily with most other hues and textures. -Julia Jones, Designing with annueals, Fine Gardening issue #120

Anethum graveolens Anethum graveolens
(Dill)
(1 user review)

As an herb, A. graveolens is commonly grown for the culinary attributes of its leaves and seeds. Its distinctive foliage texture and flower color and form make this plant a nice companion in a mixed border. It provides a valuable food source for butterfly larvae and attracts beneficial insects also.

Begonia grandis ssp. evansiana Begonia grandis ssp. evansiana
(Hardy begonia)
(2 user reviews)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This tuberous begonia bears green heart-shaped foliage with red veining and claret-stained undersides that steal the show when backlit. Pendent clusters of slightly fragrant, satiny pink or white blossoms open from midsummer until frost. It makes a good perennial companion for ferns and hostas.

Bellis perennis Bellis perennis
(English daisy)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

English daisy bears stems topped with a single white, daisy-like flower. The flowers are tinged maroon and yellow; but cultivars are available with single, semi-double, or double button flowers in shades of white, pink, salmon, and ruby. The plant's smooth, spoon-shaped leaves form neat rosettes. This carpeting perennial is often grown as a biennial. Its many cultivars are used for bedding out or container displays.

Bidens aristosa Bidens aristosa
(Tickseed sunflower, Long-bracted beggar-ticks)
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This fast-growing annual of the Midwestern wet meadows grows to 4 or 5 feet tall. Hundreds of 2-inch golden daisies with buttery tips and dark, fringed eyes smother fine foliage in late summer. Be cautioned, this plant generously self-sows, and is on Kentucky's invasive plant list.

Borago officinalis Borago officinalis
(Borage, Cool-tankard, Talewort)
(1 user review)

These fast-growing plants with succulent, bristly stems are old-fashioned favorites of the border or herb garden. They self sow to produce a succession throughout the season of new plants and blossoms. The beautiful flowers are edible and are particularly bequiling on salad or floating in summer drinks. 

Browallia americana Browallia americana
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This plant produces distinct, 2-inch blossoms primarily in rich blue (but also in shades of purple and white), with dark eyes smudged white. It is suitable for sun and partial shade.

Calendula officinalis Calendula officinalis
(Pot marigold)
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Pot marigolds bloom most of the summer, but are intolerant of intense heat and may die out during periods of hot humid weather. Their branching stems are covered with simple, alternate leaves and they produce large flowers in different hues of yellow and orange in the summer.

Calibrachoa 'Superbells Tequila Sunrise' Calibrachoa 'Superbells Tequila Sunrise'
(Millon bells, Trailing petunia)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Calibrachoa is a relatively new genus of flowering plants. The first cultivars weren't released until 1992. This cultivar's self-cleaning, petunia-like flowers are painted in a sunny mix of orange, red, and yellow. It is an easy-to-grow, trailing perennial, often used as an annual in hanging baskets, window boxes, and other containers.

Calibrachoa Superbells® Dreamsicle Calibrachoa Superbells® Dreamsicle
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Calibrachoas are great alternatives to petunias. Superbells® Dreamsicle is cloaked with larger-than-usual, yellow-throated apricot-orange flowers. It can create a carpet of color or cascade beautifully from a container.

Centaurea cyanus Centaurea cyanus
(Bachelor's buttons, Bluebottle, Cornflower)
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Bachelor's buttons bear charming and prolific flowers in hues of blue, pink, lavender, white, and maroon. Those with a true blue color are especially welcome in the garden as that color is rare in nature. Each disc-shaped flower is about 1.5 inches across, with ragged petals radiating out from the center.

Ceratotheca triloba Ceratotheca triloba
(South African foxglove)
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A rare and graceful beauty, this plant is not a true foxglove, but its flowers are similarly shaped and hang in clusters. They come in shades of white and pink with pale violet stripes highlighting the inner throats. This plant’s soft coloring brings the delicacy typical of spring-blooming plants into the summer garden. The gray-green foliage has a distinctly nutty fragrance and is deer resistant. As a large-scale plant, South African foxglove holds its own when planted among shrubs and is best complemented by plants with deep purple foliage. It also makes a good cutting flower.

Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’
(Blue shrimp plant)
(1 user review)

Though subtly colored, Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ draws comment wherever it inserts itself. The steely purple bracts and leathery gray foliage of this annual seem extraterrestrial poking up among more conventional herbaceous plants. It is an annual from the Mediterranean region with leaves like a eucalyptus and flowers like a purple euphorbia. This plant produces large black seeds that drop to the ground in late summer and germinate in fall to start the cycle all over again if growing conditions are right.

Chamaecrista fasciculata Chamaecrista fasciculata
(Partridge pea, Senna, Sleeping plant)
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This colorful annual legume bears attractive yellow flowers that have reddish-purple spots at their base. The compound, feathery leaves look like those of sensitive plant. Fruit is contained in a pea pod, which adds additional garden interest and may attract birds.

Consolida ajacis Consolida ajacis
(Larkspur)
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Feathery, almost fern-like leaves are mid- to dark green. In summer, larkspur bears delphinium-like open to densely packed spikes to 24 inches tall of pink, white, or violet-blue double flowers.

Corydalis aurea Corydalis aurea
(Scrambled eggs)
(1 user review)
Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

In spring, this biennial produces small yellow flowers, which are carried tightly over finely divided, sea green leaves. It self-sows freely.

Corydalis linstowiana Corydalis linstowiana
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Hardiness Zones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

This species produces copious purplish-blue flowers in spring and fall. It has light green ferny leaves with a mid-rib of silver.

Cosmos bipinnatus 'Sea Shells' Cosmos bipinnatus 'Sea Shells'
(1 user review)

This unique annual produces quilled blossoms of hollow, tube-shaped petals that radiate from the center in shades of white, pink, or carmine red. The flowers, which bloom all summer long, sometimes have bicolored interior and exterior tubes. 


Displaying 1 - 20 of 66 listings   1 | 2 | 3 | 4View AllNext > Sort By: Sort