Companion Plants for Annual Flowers

Grasses

• Ornamental grasses provide contrast and protection for annual flowers. Wild flowers, typically suited to dry, marginal soil, grow well with native grasses like tall and short prairie grasses. The drought-tolerant grasses act as windbreaks for the wildflowers. Other grasses such as maiden and reed species grow in irrigated or moist locations suited to pansies and rambling morning glories. Ground cover grasses like mondo grass mingle with violas and alyssum.

Bulbs

• Flowering bulbs are good companions to annual flowering plants. From early-blooming daffodils to summer-flowering gladiolus, many bulbs grow stemmed flowers. These flowers blend well with annual flowers. The annuals soften the tall stem appearance and benefit from bulb foliage contrast. For a monochromatic look, yellow-blooming bulbs and yellow flower annuals make a bright garden corner. Colors may be the same or varied. Planting early-blooming bulbs with later-blooming annuals ensures a long flower season.

Vegetables

• Gardeners have long believed marigolds and other flowers repel insects from tomatoes and other vegetables. Fragrant flowers benefit from the regular garden watering and fertilizer, while the vegetables supposedly benefit from the pest-entrapping flowers. Edible annual flowers like nasturtium and bachelor's button grow easily with bush veggies like beans and peas. Flowering annual herbs such as basil and borage commonly grow with vegetables and harvest in the same season.

Shrubs

• Annual flowers benefit from the sturdy habitat of perennial shrubs. Evergreen shrubs like camellias are slow-growing woody plants that are not invasive in annual flower beds. These and other shrubs provide height and background for annual and perennial mixed flower gardens. Create specialty gardens by mixing annuals with shrubs for color in and outside the home. Camellia shrubs, carnation perennials and cosmos annuals are examples of flowers that partner well for a cutting garden.