My box of anemone and ranunculus corms arrived today! I’m always excited to see it, yet it also feels confusing at the same time. I’m completely immersed in daily dahlia harvests yet I’ve got to start soaking my corms within a few weeks. The constant battle of managing multiple seasons at once is an every day occurrence in the mind of a farmer. How you are ever supposed to just be present I’ll never know?!

I had a consultation this past weekend with a new flower grower and it led me to reflecting on some of the things I just know intuitively now. Things I’ve done for so long that they are second nature. Yet they were learned by long periods of trial, error, and observation. We had a long talk about cold hardy annuals and what were the toughest, how to space them, care for them, etc. So I decided to make a chart highlighting a few of the aspects that I get the most questions about. (Hint: If you click on it, it gets bigger and easier to read. Also if you right click, you can download it.)

Few Notes:

1. Cold Hardiness:
   - 5 - Plants can go to low 20’s with no/little damage
   - 4 - Plants can go to mid 20’s with no/little damage
   - 3 - Plants can go to high 20’s with no/little damage

2. Ease of Growing
   - I rated these from the view point of someone who has done some basic gardening and knows the basics of how to care for a plant

3. Bloom Season- these are when the flowers usually bloom in Zone 7b, Upstate area of South Carolina

4. Plant spacing- if you are planting in a raised bed style situation with plants bordering each other. You can plant these as stand alone plants in a landscape style bed.

Cold hardy annuals are really fun plants to try because they will amaze you with how much cold they can take. They are also the best way to have early season color in your yard. You’ll have bouquets long before anyone else in the neighborhood.