[Dominic]

I'm looking at expanding my growing into stuff that look pretty, but dont know what the terms mean.

What, for example, is a half hard annual when its home exactly?

Is there a list of what the different terms mean anywhere?
I tried the Johnsons website, but there wasnt one.

[mumofstig]

annuals grow flower and seed and then die in one year. Hardy means they don't mind  cold early spring weather. Half hardy means you can start them off inside, but mustn't plant them out until after the last frost or they will die
Perennials live and flower year after year, they can also be hardy or half hardy.

Biennials germinate the first year and grow leaves, but they will not flower until the second year, then set seed and die.

They are the main ones..any more just ask

[Dominic]

So hardy Perennials are the ones I'm after then, thank you.

Would a half hardy perennial need to come in for winter?

[mumofstig]

At the very least they would need a cold greenhouse.

Half hardy perennial are things like fuchsias and geraniums, that don't won't make it through the winter unless well protected.
That said the last 2 winters have killed off some of my geraniums even in the greenhouse. So this autumn I will bring them into the spare bedroom

[JayG]

Rather confusingly there are also hardy perennial geraniums which are herbaceous perennials, meaning that the foliage dies back to the ground each autumn and starts again every spring.

Some of them are very attractive, easy-to-maintain and long-flowering plants:

[mumofstig]

oooh sorry I meant the summmer bedding ones and should have said pelargoniums...shouldn't I ?..........I always forget they had a name change

[Dominic]

Perhaps I should try and make this easier

I want some pretty stuff that I can stick in the ground a week on saturday and then ignore for all time.

So its just hardy perenials?
I'm fine if they want to die in winter as long as they regrow in summer.
Does that add in everything herbaceous?

[mumofstig]

Only buy hardy perennials then, and even most of them die back into the ground for the winter.

So hardy herbaceous perennials are just what you need and there are lots of lovely ones to choose from

[Trillium]

What makes all the above difficult is our weather changing so much from the past century when these terms first came up. That and the availability of a wider plant selection from other countries where something might be hardy there but only half hardy here, or not at all winter hardy.

When you choose your plants, find what country it originally came from and the conditions it adapted to, then determine what changes you'd need to make to keep it going.

[Dominic]

Bought some Chinese Lanterns and some Lupins £1 for 4 and 3 respectivly.
According wikipedia the lanterns can tolerate frost and the lupins are herbacious, wonder if they really do/are.

Also bought some more roses.

[Trillium]

Lupins are very frost hardy as they're up very early and lose their blooms when heat arrives. I've not grown chinese lanterns myself but a friend who does says they spread like crazy in his garden so if they aren't hardy in themselves, they'll reseed liberally.

[Dominic]

Thats even better, they'll move themselves so I get a different flower patch each year

[chimaera]

The reason behind the different lifestyles is the strategy of reproducing. Annuals don't life long so have to make as any seeds as possible, and so tend to have lots of flowers and continue flowering until they die (at least if you remove old flowers so seeds don't form). Perennials have a chance to made seeds every year and so there is no need to keep flowering, so some only flower for a couple of weeks each year. If you want a garden of perennials, you have to be careful to choose types that flower a different times. Also perennials often get bigger year after year, so may be small in the first year and leave gaps that you may want to fill with annuals.

Charlie

[Dominic]

Added some hardy gloxina too, incarveilla.

Do "flowers" actualy reseed themselves and grow the next year, in the real world?

[mumofstig]

Some definitely do, others are a bit less easy, and it's all too easy to weed out the seedlings you want along with the weeds