7 Great Annual Flowers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
Looking to add some new flowers to your garden? Try any of these seven annual flowers to add a new twist to your annual garden.
5 Best New Annual Flowers of 2022
The world’s first trailing salvia, a petunia that blooms in vibrant yellow, and two new types of flowers that most gardeners have never seen highlight an interesting new crop of annual flowers debuting this spring.
Here’s a look at five worth considering for your spring garden:
1. Texas Primrose Ladybird Sunglow®
© Proven Winners
This new variety of a little-known, heat-tough, Southwest-U.S.-native annual flower might put Texas primrose on the mainstream gardening map.
Known botanically as Calylophus, the new Ladybird Sunglow® variety has bright yellow flowers that resemble evening primrose.
It grows four to six inches tall, has a mounding habit, is attractive to pollinators (but not deer), has no known pest or disease problems, and is cold-tolerant enough to survive a light frost.
Texas primrose grows best in full sun.
2. Jamesbrittenia Safari Dawn®
© Proven Winners
Another new and different annual debuting in 2022 is this bicolor little rosy-pink and yellow bloomer.
Sometimes known as South African phlox, the new Safari Dawn® variety grows six to 12 inches tall in a dense, mounding habit and also is heat-tough, able to survive a light frost, and not attractive to deer.
Grow Safari Dawn® in either full sun or part shade.
3. Petunia ‘Bee’s Knees’
© All-America Selections
This new yellow-blooming petunia was showy and heavy-blooming enough to be the only new annual flower good enough to win a 2022 All-America Selections Gold Medal based on its performance in nationwide trials.
"Bee's Knees’" blooms bright yellow all summer, which is a ground-breaking color for the normally more pastel and relaxed colors of petunias. It’s the first petunia to win an AAS Gold Medal Award since 1950.
"Bee’s Knees" is heavy blooming and grows only about 10 inches tall but spreads nearly two feet across, making it a good choice for hanging baskets. It flowers best in full sun.
4. Salvia Bodacious® Hummingbird Falls
© Plant Haven
If you’re a hummingbird fan, this type of annual salvia (Salvia guaranitica) is one of the best at attracting these little fast-winged favorites.
Bodacious® Hummingbird Falls is a new-for-2022 variety of Salvia guaranitica that’s being billed as the world’s first trailing, hanging-basket salvia.
The tubular flowers are deep blue-purple with black bases and produce throughout the summer on plants that grow a foot to 18 inches tall and 24 to 30 inches wide.
Bodacious® Hummingbird Falls grows in full sun to part shade and isn’t attractive to deer.
5. Begonia Rex Jurassic Jr™ Fire Spike
© Ball Horticulture
If you like colorful foliage and have some shady spots in the yard, four variations of Jurassic™ Rex begonias are debuting in 2022.
Jurassic™, Jurassic Dino™, and Jurassic Jr.™ grow 14 to 16 inches tall, while Jurassic Megalo™ grows about two feet tall. Within each line are varieties that come in all sorts of painterly leaf-color blends, including pink, rose, burgundy, silver, green, creamy-white, and nearly black – often with swirls or mottling patterns to boot.
Jurassic Dino™ is the most compact version, while Jurassic Jr.™ has markedly smaller leaves than the rest.
Besides adding colorful foliage to the summer shade garden, Rex begonias can be dug and potted to grow as houseplants over winter.
Learn more about Begonia Rex Jurassic Jr™ Fire Spike and see the other varieties here.
