What's So Cool About Cool-Season Annuals?

The plant life at the Chicago Botanic Garden explodes with color in the spring! Nowhere is there more color, more variety and more blooming than in the cool-season containers found throughout the Garden. "Cool-season" refers to that group of colorful plants, both flowering and vegetable, that prefers spring’s cooler temperatures and even a nip or two of frost. These annuals make perfect companions to the glorious bulbs that begin their show in early April and continue the display all spring.

Throughout the Garden are large terra cotta pots, hanging baskets, English troughs and limestone urns packed with the latest in cool-season, cutting-edge annuals. Even the Fruit & Vegetable Garden features edible ornamentals in pots, from early mesclun greens to vining sweet peas and rainbow chard.

Cool-season plants can be started indoors by seed or purchased as small plants either through mail-order catalogs or at nearby nurseries. Make sure they have been hardened off before bringing them directly into your garden by the second week in April. Most thrive in full sun and appreciate an even supply of moisture with good drainage.

Visitors to the Garden, who pass through the Heritage Garden, can’t miss the brilliant combinations of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths with tiny, honey-scented snapdragons, lush double Persian buttercups and glistening South African daisies. Many of these annuals have been selected especially for their bushy habits and their shorter stature, making them ideal partners in containers.

The silky shades of California poppies are unmistakable. Their iridescent petals fold up at night but burst open with full sunshine. Gardeners might be familiar with the yellow or orange pot marigold, but how about "Pink Surprise"? This selection brings a new twist to an old favorite.

No matter what the season, blue is the "coolest color"–able to take on the fiery red, orange and purple tulips. Blue-faced pansies and violas abound as do blue forget-me-notes with their tiniest of flowers, the wide-eyed baby blue-eyes and the spiky Texas bluebonnets.

Cool-season annuals help you extend your gardening season by four to five weeks and provide you with beautiful partners to your spring bulbs. Come see the hot new cool plants this spring at the Chicago Botanic Garden.