Our Annual Event

With so many choices, a fresh start is a snap

ANNUALS, HERBS and vegetables can be embraced as one big, glorious gardening experiment because they're so repercussion-free. You can buy a six-pack of starts for a couple of bucks and have an impressive display as well as something to eat for the next six months. Then start over with fresh ideas next spring.

Maybe joyful gardening can be quantified with an ideal ratio of commitment to play. For every seriously deliberated tree or shrub you get to plant at least a dozen annuals? Two dozen? No matter how you justify it, enjoy all the new choices, including:

Begonia 'Bertini' is a firecracker of a plant with cascades of reddish-orange flowers that pop out from typically pretty begonia leaves. Blooming from June through fall, it's perfect for a container or hanging basket. This heat-tolerant begonia (how we hope we need heat-tolerant annuals this summer!) is available from White Flower Farm (www.whiteflowerfarm.com) and from local retail nurseries soon, I hope. If you prefer begonias with plump flowers, 'Can Can' is voluptuously ruffled in butter yellow, each petal precisely outlined in hot orange.

Oregon wholesaler Log House Plants can be counted on for novelties that become garden stalwarts. Their new, compact nemesia is as delicate as a wildflower. N. cherianthus 'Shooting Stars' has snappy yellow and white flowers with a distinct coconut fragrance. A rediscovered annual heirloom vine from Hawaii is the magenta-pink ruffled Ipomoea x imperialis 'Sunrise Serenade' that blooms all summer. Also known as a moonflower or morning glory, this vine grows 8 to 15 feet, isn't fussy about soil, and thrives in sun or partial shade. All are available in area nurseries.

Coleus seem to multiply like kittens every spring, yet are even more various in their markings. Coleus 'Strawberry Drop' is trailing and sun-tolerant with little leaves in vivid lime, hot pink and cream. 'Sky Fire' has larger leaves splashed in pink and wine red, with edges as jagged as if cut with a pinking shear.

Caladiums, often called angel wings, are among the showiest foliage annuals. C. 'Excalibur' has arrow-shaped leaves in an unusual pewter-tinged-with-pink shade. C. 'Thai Beauty' looks as if each leaf is a pink, green and white batik print. Both are available from White Flower Farm.

Make your pesto pretty with variegated Basil 'Perpetual Pesto,' each deep-green leaf splashed in cream, intensely fragrant and tasty.

There's a new corn so showy you can't believe it also tastes delicious. Zea mays 'Double Red' has burgundy stalks and husks topped with tufts of orange silk cosseting cobs of dark-red sweet corn.

And if, like me, you can't resist growing a pumpkin or two, try the new Pumpkin 'One Too Many.' These weird 20-pounders could be the hit of your Halloween haunted house — so marked with red veins that they look like huge, bloodshot eyeballs (hence the name).

A cuter fruit is the new miniature cucumber. Perfect for containers or small-space gardens, these white-skinned cukes grow about 3 inches long and have great flavor for salads or pickles. They also look fetching dripping off the vine in flower arrangements.

For a dramatically dark note, consider the Black Pearl pepper (Capsicum annuum) with truly black leaves dotted with shiny round dark-red fruit.

And what would summer be without the quest for ripe tomatoes? Two new kinds are worth the effort because they're decorative as well as tasty. An heirloom tomato from Ireland (Lycopersicon lycopersicum) has red fruit shown off by white variegated leaves. 'Red Lightening' is a new tomato from Burpee, so glowingly mottled in red and orange it's nothing short of psychedelic.

Remember that no matter how tempted you are by the early appearance of annuals and vegetables on nursery tables, many will suffer a serious setback if planted out too early. Be prepared to nurture them along on a sunny windowsill until the nights warm up considerably and consistently. Only then can you safely move basil, tomatoes or most of the flowers out of doors.

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net.