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Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/Image Point

Ideal annual borders comprise plants that mix color, form and texture in a pleasing, eye-catching array. The use of tall, loose foliage from plants such as bachelor’s button and annual chrysanthemum offset dense mounds of alyssum and broad-leafed zinnia.

As you’re dreaming up a garden plan, picture the finished product in a black-and-white photograph to help tell you whether the annuals you have in mind will combine to look like a garden design or just a random collection of plants. Gardens need patterns and balance as well as pleasing color schemes, and that means paying attention to the interplay of sizes, shapes and textures.

To begin with, make sure your garden displays a sense of proportion. Think about the overall scale of your planting: Do you want a garden of heroic scale, or does your space call for a carpet of low-growing species? The answer depends partly on why you’re planting annuals in the first place. Do you need instant color, for example, or are you hoping to fill in areas of your perennial border? Next, arrange your selected annuals according to relative size. As a rule, tall plants should go at the back of your border, with shorter ones in front. This arrangement creates a lush look and allows short plants to be seen while hiding the legginess of taller annuals.

The form (or outline) of your plants is a less obvious but equally important factor in the look of your garden. Annuals come in many shapes, from dense, rounded mounds to open, airy sprays. Visualizing your plants as silhouettes will help you combine different shapes for a design that looks purposeful and pleasing, as opposed to haphazard. Here again, your goal is to create balance: Soften the impact of solid-looking plantings with open, airy plants; pair spiky plants with rounded ones. Keeping in mind that “form follows function,” allow your landscape and your goals to suggest the plants to be used. To soften the edges of a walkway, plant annuals that have a low, mounding form; if you’re covering a trellis, fence or wall, creeping plants make good choices.

Finally, examine the textures of both the flowers and foliage you intend to use in your garden. They can be rough or smooth, fuzzy or glossy, wrinkled or frilly. Different textures can be arranged for contrast to great effect. Use what’s pleasing to you and your senses.

Annuals are generally planted in group settings, with several individual plants of a single species building either an orderly or irregular shape that joins with nearby neighbors. To emphasize the difference, choose plants that have different profiles, growth habits and foliage texture, as well as complementary flower colors and shapes. Take the simple steps shown in the following pictures and described in their captions to create an attractive mixed annual border.