Best Annual Plant to Grow
The Common sunflower is recognizable for its bright flower on a very tall stem. It is often grown in gardens. These flowers have been important in culture: they were worshipped by the ancient Inca people, and today, they represent eco-friendly movements. The artist Vincent Van Gogh made a famous series of paintings about Common sunflowers. Wild versions of the plant branch out to many flower heads, but domesticated plants typically only have one.
Large white petunia (Petunia axillaris ) is a flowering herbaceous annual plant of the tobacco family (Solanaceae), native to South America. Because of its hardiness and elegant trumpet-shaped white flowers, it is a familiar garden plant, but still less common in gardens than its descendent – the garden petunia. Garden petunia is a hybrid of Petunia axillaris and Petunia integrifolia.
Field pumpkin are most commonly seen as decorations throughout the autumn and during the Halloween holiday, when they are carved and used as traditional jack-o’-lanterns. While the taste of Field pumpkin flesh may not be ideal, eating the seeds after toasting them with a bit of salt can be a delicious treat!
The Plumed-cockscomb is a bright plant with recognizable red, pink, or purple flowers. It grows best in warm, tropical environments. Occasionally, Plumed-cockscomb is used as an ingredient in soap. In China and India, however, the plant is considered a pesky weed that reduces biodiversity.
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is a creeping vine native to South Asia. It has a long history of cultivation – mentions of its use are found in various ancient scripts, including the Bible, Epic of Gilgamesh and Pliny the Elder’s “Natural History“. Today, Cucumber is one of the most widely cultivated vegetable species in the world.
The China aster is best known for its bright flowers, which can be purple, pink, red, or white. It is native to China and Korea, making the origin of the common name, China aster quite obvious. The plants are relatively susceptible to diseases, so gardeners must watch them closely.
The Common zinnia is a popular garden plant. It thrives in relatively dry conditions with good airflow. Garden varieties come in many colors, usually having been hybridized from different wild varieties. Common zinnias are considered an allergy-safe pollen-producing flower.
Mexican marigold is a common garden plant with bright orange or red flowers. Its use in decorative and ceremonial gardens dates back to ancient Aztec civilizations. Not only does Mexican marigold add bright colors, but it is also known to repel insects, rabbits, and deer thanks to its toxic latex.
Marijuana (Cannabis sativa) has a very long history of cultivation for various purposes. Marijuana can be used for manufacturing industrial fiber, hemp oil, and food (seeds) in medicine and pharmacy as a recreational drug, and as an entheogen among other applications. Each plant is either male or female, with only the females producing useful amounts of oil.
The Pot marigold is a herbaceous perennial plant often recognized by its thick, orange-yellow blooms with numerous petals. Flowers of the Common marigold have a long history of table use. They are often served in salads or as a decoration. The flowers can also be made into a similarly-colored dye for foods, textiles, or cosmetic products.
Cucurbita maxima, commonly known as Winter squash, is an annual, herbaceous plant native to South America. It is widely used for various culinary purposes. Winter squash has a lot of cultivars, which are very diverse in terms of fruit color, size, and shape. Pumpkin is the most popular cultivar of this plant.
Common bean is one of the most widely produced cash crops in the world, with 23.6 million tons grown in 2016. China is the largest producer of the Common bean, accounting for 79% of the market share. While the Common bean is known as a staple food source, the leaves can be used to trap bedbugs and the beans are widely used in a type of fortune-telling called “favomancy”.
Garden cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) is a herbaceous annual plant often cultivated as an ornamental in temperate regions. Due to its self-sowing ability, Garden cosmos can grow on the same spot for several years, even though it is an annual. Not surprisingly, this quality also made it an invasive species in certain areas of the world.
Moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora) is an ornamental flowering succulent native to South America. It is usually cultivated in annual flowerbeds and as a container plant. Different cultivars have been selected for achieving variation in color, shape and petal number of the flowers.
Centaurea cyanus is known by several names, like cornflower and bachelor’s button. This flower has a beautiful blue color that was a favorite of famed Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. Today it is a Crayola crayon color as well as an HTML color name. The color is defined as a medium to light blue that contains very little green.