by Sophia Josephina

Created on: July 29, 2009

Have you ever gone into a local nursery and had to answer the question "Are you looking for annuals or perennials?" If you have never had any experiences with plants this may be a difficult question to answer. And even after someone explains it to you, you still may be a little confused as to which is which.

When you are considering a garden full of beautiful tranquil plants for your yard the first question should be "How much do you want to spend every year?". The second question should be "How much work do you want to do every year?" These two questions are going to impact what type of plants you buy.

Perennials live more than two years and come in a wide variety of colors. These types of plants will have stems that are soft and fleshy. Perennials typically will only bloom for up to 4 weeks at a time. As a rule perennials will not bloom the first year unless you start the seeds in a sheltered area earlier in the season, but they always bloom the second year.

After the second year, perennials will begin to establish a very vigorous root system so that it can survive the harsh winters. As the root system gets stronger with each year that goes by, perennials will also get bigger, taller, and wider with each passing year until it reaches its ideal height and with.

If you don't want to do a lot of work and only want to plant once and forget about it perennials are the way to go, saving time and money. Annuals on the other hand need to be planted every year which will be more costly and require more work.

Annuals will bring color, upon color of beautiful blossoms, with sweet smelling flowers to your garden and can be planted just about anywhere. These seasonal plants look fabulous in container gardens, which is ideal for an apartment. Hanging baskets with cascading colorful flowers are a beautiful display of how annuals can be used as well.

Annuals must be planted every year either by seed or by a seedling that you can buy at your local gardening store - thus spending money every year as well. They come in an enormous amount of colors and the flower usually last all season and well into the fall, depending on how cold your climate gets.

Weather it's a perennial or an annual you will not be disappointed when they begin to strut their beauty in your yard.

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