Should You Plant More Annuals or Perennials? 7 Considerations

As our garden preferences and styles evolve over time, perennials and annuals offer rewarding ways to change the look and form of the landscape. Because of their scale and versatility, they let us rearrange and experiment with color, texture, and plant selection. As we add to our collections and as specimens grow and mature, adapting the lower plantings gives us the freedom to get creative and expand.

When it comes to whether to plant more annuals or perennials, the decision doesn’t have to be either/or. They combine beautifully, whether in the border or pots and containers. Using them in concert, and also strategically, punches up the look while adding lasting seasonal interest. But to choose which to invest more in, there are helpful considerations to guide our planting.

Whether or not a plant is an annual or perennial for your area depends on your growing zone and microclimate. Many summer-flowering annuals are perennial in tropical, frost-free zones. There are tender perennials, too, which are those that are only marginally hardy in your area. They may make it through an average winter with protection, or conditions may be too extreme. Use your growing zone as a guide, and enjoy experimenting to learn your garden’s star performers.

Rely on Perennials

Perennials come back season after season, whether short-lived for a few years or long-lived for decades. Herbaceous perennials enter seasonal dormancy when temperatures are beyond their growing range, often dying back to the ground in winter, but some enter dormancy in the summer heat. They emerge for the following growing season as temperatures moderate for their best growth.

Perennials are the workhorses of the garden, enhancing visual appeal year after year. While more of an initial cost than annuals, their reliable performance makes the investment go a long way. Divide them as they expand or let them reseed to bulk up the display, transplant to other garden areas, and show off in containers.

With color, texture, and movement, perennials create a tapestry of multi-season interest and long-lasting beauty, whether through blooms, dynamic foliage, or both. They also enrich the landscape with ecosystem value for butterflies, bees, birds, and other wildlife through nectar and seed production, as host plants, shelter, and overwintering habitat. Incorporate native plants for a well-rounded arrangement with low maintenance needs.

Advantages of perennials:

• Lasting investment as they return in subsequent growing seasons
• Multi-season interest
• Sustainable, with few extra resources required and low maintenance
• Ecosystem services like wildlife and pollinator value, soil improvement, erosion control, and overwintering habitat

Embellish With Annuals

Annuals offer instant gratification with quick growth and flowering. They’re the go-to for a refresh in a flash. As opposed to perennials, they do all of their growing, flowering, and seeding in a single season. When temperatures become too cold or too hot for their growing needs, they die out. 

Annuals allow us to easily change up the look of the display, from color scheme to patterning (drifts, formal beds, pops of color here and there). When little else is blooming in the peak of summer or in cool weather, annuals boost the arrangement. While trees, shrubs, and perennials unify the scheme year-round, annual plantings accent and energize the space and create focal areas.

Blooming annuals easily fill containers, hanging baskets, and window boxes for all-season color.  They also serve pollinators like butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds in nectar and pollen production (though some cultivars lose these qualities in breeding).

Advantages of annuals:

• Flexibility and creativity with color
• Floriferous and with quick leafy growth across their growing season
• Perform during quiet times for other selections
• Lower upfront cost

Quick Color to Boost Curb Appeal

Annuals are the fastest way to punch up curb appeal and add fresh color. Their blooms (or dynamic foliage) emerge quickly as temperatures suit. An infusion of annuals, even in a hanging basket, shows an element of care in addition to high visual interest.

Use annual color for seasonal change-outs, trying on a new look to keep things interesting. They also serve to unify the landscape by repeating the color scheme. Whether relying on a single color or a blend of complementary shades, using the same palette in different garden areas ties it together. As color is the first element to draw the eye, it has the power to create a cohesive, balanced aesthetic.

Annuals also help improve a space in a pinch. If you have fading or worn-out areas and need a quick revival, opt for vigorous annuals. Then, decide what’s most sustainable for the space for the next round of planting. They’re also a fit for challenging spaces. With shallow roots, sometimes annuals fit better than perennials, which have more extensive root systems. Annuals are less likely to outgrow a shallow planting strip, for example, than larger specimens.

Multi-Season Interest

When it comes to planting more annuals or perennials for extended interest, perennials are in it for the long haul. They span multiple seasons with their interest, ensuring something exciting is always happening in the landscape. All-season appeal is an important part of garden design, planning, and function, and perennials fulfill the role with staggered bloom times, foliar qualities, and unique seedheads.

Many of our favorites, including natives, shine in summer and fall (rudbeckia, echinacea, coreopsis, monarda, and so many others). They flower until frost, often experiencing a renewed flush in fall, and they develop seeds that persist into winter and provide forage for songbirds.

Others like hellebore, cyclamen, and spring-flowering bulbs bring late winter blooms for delight that lasts into spring. Whether evergreen or standing in dormancy (dried grasses and seeds are spectacular in the frosty landscape), employ perennials to provide extended interest across the year. They also bring extended value for beneficial insects and wildlife in their long bloom times and seed production.

Layering and Garden Style

Perennials and annuals contribute to diverse garden layers, adding variation and interest through selections with different heights, forms, and hues. Whether in a formal layout (taller shrubs followed by a perennial layer and down to an annual border) or in loose, informal plantings (cottage gardens, naturalistic arrangements, perennial borders), tailor the combination of perennials and annuals to match your garden style.

As long as the growing conditions are a fit regarding sun exposure, soil type, and moisture needs, perennial and annual combos are endless. 

If you have the space and don’t mind seeing what crops up, choose perennials and annuals that reseed. In their optimal growing conditions, volunteer seedlings show the next year. Deadhead in late summer and fall to prevent reseeding, or leave blooms on the stem for seeds to develop and disperse. Sometimes reseeding selections self-sow too vigorously. Make sure they’re not invasive in your area before planting.

Examples of perennials that reseed:

• Aster
• Columbine
• Coreopsis
• Echinacea
• Foxglove
• Gaillardia
• Lady’s Mantle
• Lupine
• Monarda
• Rudbeckia
• Salvia
• Yarrow

Examples of annuals that reseed:

• Amaranth
• Bachelor’s Button
• Borage
• Celosia
• Cleome
• Cosmos
• Hollyhocks
• Nasturtium
• Petunias
• Sweet Alyssum
• Zinnia

Highlight The Cool Season

During seasons with transitional temperatures and fluctuating conditions, when it comes to deciding whether to plant more annuals or perennials, these are prime times for certain flowering annuals to shine. Fall and spring bring cool weather for much of the country and are when perennials enter dormancy (fall) or are just beginning to emerge (spring) relative to first and final frosts. Annuals bridge these seasons with a flurry of color, even if short-lived. It is the best time to plant perennials, though, so get going for years of enrichment.

Cool-season annuals are those that thrive in the mild conditions of the “off” season for many other bloomers. They start in fall, and when little else is blooming in winter, they extend the pop of cheer we crave. Some are frost-tolerant annuals like violas and pansies for reliable performance in boundless colors. Snapdragons, ornamental kale, calendula, poppies, and bachelor buttons are other flowering annuals that provide a burst of cool-season blooms. I

In climates with mild winters, they’ll bloom all season. In cold climates, use them in fall or spring. Pollinators appreciate the shoulder season nectar and pollen supply.

Creative Containers

Containers allow versatility and creativity any time of year, and both annuals and perennials are a fit. Use annuals to embellish anchoring evergreens and perennials. Feature the season’s specialties for both. In fall, perennials like chrysanthemums, asters, and black eyed Susans are lovely pairings to annual ornamental cabbages and flowers like calendula and pansies. Ornamental grasses, flowering perennials, and annuals make a lasting summer-to-fall display.

Use potted arrangements for color, fragrance, and form, and place them where they can be seen and enjoyed. Create inviting entrances by emphasizing the front door or garden gate, walkways, or seating areas with colorful pots. Containers are valuable, too, in times when the garden is quiet, like winter. Use them for specialty interests to highlight the season’s bounty in fall or decorate during winter.