With winter finally over, think of your garden as

With winter finally over, think of your garden as a giant blank canvas awaiting the first splash of color. Painting the landscape with annuals offers a limitless palette of hues, from rich purples and maroons to softer pastels and sunkissed whites. Whatever your color preference, annuals will provide instant beauty to your home, from spring through fall, at a very small cost.

' By definition, an annual is a plant that grows, flowers, sets seed and dies within the same year. These versatile flowers are fancied by gardeners around the country for the variety of garden roles they play.

For example, impatiens and begonias, which grow well in low light, are often used to brighten dark, uninteresting corners in the landscape. Want to dress up a mixed border? Try planting pansies, marigolds and zinnias, a perfect trio whose flashy flowers and flamboyant foilage will add a rainbow of interesting colors and shapes.

Annuals can also be used as temporary groundcovers, and some, such as phlox and verbena, bring a spot of color to rock gardens. Still other annuals, including petunias, deanthus and stocks, fill the air with a delicate sweet scent, offering fragrance as * part of their allure. Even if gardening space is limited, you can spruce up patios, decks and terraces by growing brightly-colored annuals in portable containers.

There’s no mystery to growing beautiful flowering annuals. In fact, if you start with healthy bedding plants, as opposed to starting from seed, all that’s really left to do is improve the soil, provide regular waterings and pray for sunny days ahead.

Choosing a Site

Some annuals tolerate shade, but most flowering varieties grow best in full sun, usually requiring a minimum of seven hours for good flower production. So, choose a site that receives full sun for the widest selection and most colorful kinds of annuals.

Plants recommended for shaded areas perform best in a