Perennials are wonderful the few weeks they bloom. Then they just take up space. There are some exceptions, such as certain daylilies which are in and out of bloom all season. But they are hideous in the winter.
I use mostly annuals, with a few perennials in the background. Here in Texas we can have some type of annual in bloom (or for color) almost year-round.

I do mostly perennials with annuals for pots and spots where I need some color at a specific time.
Nothing offers the variety of perennials....nor the summer long color of annuals. I think any garden really needs both.
Linda C

Hi,

I dont have much luck with annuals in the ground, with a few exceptions. I grow many in pots. There are literally hundreds of perennials I want to grow. I love them. There are some that bloom spring through fall, and some are invaluable for late summer color. Cant beat annuals for nonstop color, even in hot weather. I also grow roses, which bloom all season and put some of my larger houseplants outdoors in summer.

Jen

I wouldn't want to be without both. I have gardened for forty years and have my favorites both annual and perennial.

I garden in zone 5-- sometimes acts like 6-- and zones I am sure makes a difference on what plant material you use.

Most annuals are perennials. Just depends what zone you are in. I love lantana as an annual, but people in zone 9 or 10 consider it a perennial. I grow both annuals and perennials. and many annuals act like perennials by self sowing. I also use bushes or anything else that I think wil look good in a spot. I live in zone 5, so I have to dig up many of my favorite bulbs to save them. I plant lots of canna, elephant ears, even a couple banana's. These are all perennials in some zones!!

Lee

You can't get beautiful annuals to bloom in March and April up north, so perennials and bulbs provide splendor when the annuals are just babies. I love both. I love my foxgloves, echinacea and rudbeckia...wouldn't wanna live without perennials or annuals or bulbs, flowering shrubs....etc etc

There are perennials that bloom all summer if cut back. The forums have a lot of ideas for variety.

I do annual and perennial, they are both equally required in my garden.

Sharon

Perennials for a only few weeks? Hideous in the winter? Yikes, you need to read up on some of the perennial options, eldo. What about perennials that bloom for months or offer nice, evergreen foliage all winter long?

Though I love many annuals, perennials are the backbone of my gardens. mary max, you probably have fewer evergreen perennial options than many of us do (I actually don't know), but they certainly don't have to look hideous in the properly tended garden where they would be cut back.

There's few more rewarding times in the garden than seeing everything wake from winter dormancy, to start out all over again....only bigger and better than the year before.

When I started to get interested in gardening, I planted only annuals. At that time, my main goal was to make my property look nice for the neighbours, LOL.

Thinking back, and wondering now why it took me so long to embrace perennials, I'd guess that I probably found the whole concept intimidating, expensive and bland for lack of color. Intimidating because it meant learning about soil conditions, light and shade, zones, bringing in tubers over the winter, oh my, too much trouble. And for what? Some plant that would give me flowers for 4 or 5 weeks then fade away to green? Expensive because when you've bought flats of annuals for years, and cell packs of 4 for 2.29, it's quite the leap to then spend $6 on ONE plant that's going to flower for only a short time each year.

Then I bought a peegee hydrangea. (A shrub with large white flowers)

My sister saw it in my garden and loved it. She rushed out to buy one, and that was the start of HER gardening journey. She left me behind with my little geranium flower boxes, and five years later I was walking around with her in her back garden as she spouted off the various latin names. I couldn't believe the transformation, and the paradise she had created. She showed me soft lambs ears, spikes of bright blue speedwell, clouds of shasta daisies... after that, every time i saw her garden, something different was happening. THAT's what it was all about. Textures, foliage, changing landscapes. I was hooked.

I still use a lot of annuals - I have this thing about only annuals being in the front of the house and mostly perennials being in the back... I don't know why.

I would guess that many people here started out the same way - getting their feet wet with annuals and then slowly discovering the rewards of perennials. But I think too, with all this information now at our fingertips online, you certainly don't have to take as long as I did :)

Pam

I with the above perennial-loving crowd. There is a VAST array of perennials, there is a perennial for every season, every zone, even in colder zones can get winter interest with dried folliage (especially grasses) and seedpods. I also enjoy that every week brings something new, there's always something to antipicate, from the early spring wildflowers to the late fall bloomers (Ajania doesn't even begin blooming until October, sometimes November in my area), once the show starts in the spring, its an ever-changing display.

I do use annuals, but like a poster above, mostly in decorative pottery on my patios, although I do have a few annuals tucked in here and there in the beds. Annuals give that season-long punch of color that is needed in certain areas, and while my heart is in my perennial beds, I do admit perennials can't compete in the non-stop bloom department. So, for me, there is a place for both.

Just my opinion, but a garden that's dominated by annuals can be a terrible looking garden for half the year in the Chicago area. It's also an awful lot of work to keep replanting everything each season. I'm doing my best to use fewer and fewer annuals each year, and the ones I use are usually sown from the previous year's plants. The only real exception is ipatiens, which come up too late in the season for me. I buy a few flats of those.

The lion's share of my herbaceous plants are perennials. Some have short bloom times, but they're worth the wait. Others bloom for a good two months or more, especially if you keep them deadheaded and well maintained. All of my phlox paniculatas are in their second bloom, and chances are I'll get a third one out of them this season.

And let's not forget about the woody plants. I'm also cutting down on my perennials, in favor of more shrubs. It wasn't until I studied woodies in college a couple years ago that I realized what a doofus I was for not seeing their beauty and incredible value in the garden. I don't believe a garden is all about blooming plants. Texture, form and foliage colors are often just as interesting and beautiful as blooms.

Tina McG

I'm going to research the 'reseeding annuals' extensively for what I may already have in there, and what I can put in next season.

While I love both Ps & As, I am only partial to either when each is at its peak. Can't beat the intoxicating fragrance of a mature Daylily specimen, or the overflowing bounty that is a tower of wave petunias smothered in bloom in Mid July. Come this time of year, I'll never be without several varieties of Rudbeckia, Cosmos, and Marigolds.

I love "Sensory Overload" as it applies to my garden!

Nope; can't pin me down to one or the other.

Since we're talking about perennials in this interesting thread, I thought I'd attach a link to a good conversation going on in the (guess) Perennials Forum. It's about longest lasting floral display!

Here is a link that might be useful: Check it out!

... noting changing climatic shifts, precipitation,and so forth,I think I shall go with more annuals...interesting times....

A major factor in my decision to scale down on annuals and plant mostly woodies and perennials had to do with water requirements. Established perennials require less watering than shallow-rooted annuals.

I like the continually changing show in the garden, as perennials go in and out of bloom. My shasta daisies (Becky) bloomed for two full months and are now trimmed back and looking nice and tidy, just in time for the asters, boltonias and mums to put on their show. Perennials don't need to look ratty when they're done. They can be trimmed back to look quite nice, even though they're not in bloom.

Tina McG

I do both. Black eyed susans, Purple cone flowers, hostas, bee balm,ornamental grass, day lilies. Then I do a lot of impatiens, vinca, salvia.

Tom

I'm growing a lot of roses and maybe even more perennials. I like the change from week to week - different color combo's, different parts of the garden in bloom. Think just mass displays of annuals a bit boring - same picture all summer long. But annuals help a lot with continuous color especially in August and September. And things like nicotiana sylvestris make a statement that is hard to ignore (and self-sows so there is no need to replant every year).
As for winter - snow cover looks the same no matter what is under it.