The Seattle Times: Pacific Northwest Magazine : The Annual Rite

BECAUSE ANNUALS last only a single season, are relatively inexpensive and quick to produce, they're fun to experiment with for plant breeders and for gardeners. We just get used to those fetching Ride the Wave petunias and brand new double cosmos come on the market!

I don't think this is anything official, but it looks like 2005 should be dubbed the year of the coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides). This Victorian foliage plant, considered tacky and garish for decades, has had a renaissance in the past five years. Now whole sections of local nurseries are devoted to ruffled, mottled, spotted and variously colored coleus. A new series called Kong has monster-sized leaves with patterning and coloring ideal for massing in pots or to complement other annuals.

Another flashy foliage plant is the softly metallic Plectranthus argentatus 'Silver Shield.' Perfect for containers, the downy leaves droop gracefully, and the shimmery color sets off purples and pinks as well as hotter colors. In late summer, it shoots up tall spikes dotted with pale blue flowers.

Sunflowers have been just dull green stems and leaves until their impressive flowers come on, but the cream-splashed leaves of Helianthus 'Sunspots' are showy all season. Picture two-toned leaves on stalks nearly 7 feet high topped off by huge golden flowers in midsummer and you'll get a preview of the world's first variegated sunflower.

Another first are double cosmos, great cut flowers with a long season of bloom. Cosmos 'Double Click' have ruffly flowers in pink, rose, blush, cream white and purple.

There's a new love-in-a-mist (Nigella) with a more dramatic color scheme than the usual blue tones. Nigella 'African Bride' has pure white petals set off by black centers and, like its more usual cousins, is lacy, self-seeding and long-lasting in bouquets.

Also from Log House Plants in Eugene, Ore., which distributes to local nurseries, are a number of unusual new edibles. The most unusual is the Easter-egg-colored corn called 'Earthtones' in pastel shades of blue, green, gold, bronze and pink. It forms an 8- to 10-inch ear of corn in 85 days.

Also new in Log House's appropriately named "Believe It or Not" series is an heirloom melon called 'Tigger' with bright yellow coloration marked with red zig-zags. Inside is fragrant, white-fleshed fruit.

How about a black Japanese squash called 'Black Futsu' with golden flesh and the taste of hazelnuts, or a black pineapple tomato called 'Ananas Noire' with multicolored fruit that tastes sweet and smoky with a hint of citrus? All are available this spring for the first time.

Capturing an All-American Selections designation this year was a different kind of tomato. 'Sugary' has small, plentiful fruits that resist cracking. They are especially sweet-tasting, and pretty in dark pink. For more information on all kinds of vegetables, check out the newly launched Cornell University Web site www.cce.cornell.edu/veg, which compares more than 2,000 vegetable varieties, links to seed sources and helps gardeners choose which types of veggies are best for their climate.

Impatiens define summer annuals (or is that petunias?), and, of course, there are fresh colors to keep us intrigued. Impatiens 'Fusion Glow' is golden yellow with orange centers, and Impatiens 'Heat' is bold, bright orange.

Cultivate your garden-writing skills

Come take a class from Valerie Easton this Tuesday. "Writing Your Garden for Publication or Pleasure" will look at the best garden reading and sources of inspiration, as well as the nitty-gritty of writing and the business of getting published. Bring your questions or short pieces of writing to the Center for Urban Horticulture, 7 to 9 p.m. Cost is $25; for pre-registration or information, call 206-685-8033.

And how about new petunias? 'Flambe' is a multiflora-type with masses of blooms in two-toned pink and yellow. Ride the Wave petunias, which spread widely to 3 feet, have a new true red called — you guessed it — Easy Wave Red. It opens a deep tone of blood red and lightens to a softer shade as the plant matures. Then there are new trailing petunias like 'Avalanche,' which blooms early with purple flowers marked with a darker eye.

Zinnias, too, are popping up in new colors, most notably Zinnia elegans 'Magellan Coral' that won a 2005 All-American Selections award. It has 6-inch-wide double flowers that bloom early and continue all summer. 'Profusion Apricot' is a softer, sweeter color, and 'Profusion Fire' has searingly scarlet-orange flowers.

Whether you bed out annuals, plant them up in containers, use them to trim borders or eat them, plenty of new annuals will satisfy your longings for a fresh look and gardening adventures.

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