Add striking color to your garden with stunning annual bicolor flowers. While many flowering plants produce single-color blooms, others feature a contrasting eye, striped petals, petals that fade from one hue to another, or petals or bracts of differing colors. Whatever they look like, annual multicolor flowers provide vibrancy all summer long.
1. Petunia (Petunia x hybrida)
The funnel-shaped flowers of the popular petunia come in a range of bold hues. Bicolor options are also available, such as blossoms with striped petals, contrasting throats, or contrasting edges. These mounding, trailing plants work equally well in beds and containers.
Easy to please, petunias thrive in moist, well-drained soil and full to part sun.
Check out these eye-catching ideas for landscaping with petunias.
2. Verbena (Verbena x hybrida)
Garden verbenas produce clusters of small, five-petaled flowers that, like petunias, can be found in a slew of vibrant color options. From just six inches to 30 inches high, different varieties may have a mounding, trailing, or upright habit, which means there’s probably a verbena that suits your needs.
Verbenas prefer rich soil with good drainage and bloom best in full sun, and they tolerate drought well.
3. Lantana (Lantana camara)
Multicolor lantana varieties feature flowers of different vibrant colors in a each rounded cluster for a striking display. Common combinations include yellow with pink or orange. The small but vivid flower clusters attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators.
Lantana appreciates moist, well-drained soil in full sun, though it will tolerate drought and poor soil.
4. Garden coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)
A showy, long-blooming wildflower native to the south-central United States, garden coreopsis produces disc-shaped flowers with dark, reddish centers that bleed onto the base of the golden yellow petals. These unique blooms make good cut flowers and look stunning in massed plantings.
Garden coreopsis tolerates drought, poor soil, and heat, but it does not appreciate “wet feet.” It likes full sun and good soil drainage.
5. Calibrachoa (Calibrachoa x hybrida)
Also called million bells, mini petunia, or trailing petunia, calibrachoa blooms throughout the summer with masses of small, bell-shaped flowers closely resembling petunias. The half- to one-inch blossoms often feature contrasting throats. Their low growing habit makes them suitable for a variety of applications.
Calibrachoa prefers moist, rich, well-drained soil in full sun, and it tolerates drought and heat. Though it will also grow in light shade, the blooming may be reduced.
6. Strawflower (Xerochrysum bracteatum)
With its stiff, papery petals, strawflower is a long-lasting cut flower and even retains its shape and color when dried. It has a large, golden center surrounded by petals that may be a solid color or fade from one hue to another. Deadheading ensures an abundance of blooms from late spring until frost.
Though typically grown as an annual, this short-lived tender perennial may overwinter in zones 8-11. It tolerates drought and grows happily in average to dry soil and full to part sun.
7. Pansy (Viola x wittrockiana)
The cheerful pansy deserves a spot in every garden, whether planted in beds or tucked into containers. Its five colorful, overlapping petals have fanciful markings often reminiscent of a face. A unique cool-weather annual, it blooms in fall, spring, and sometimes through winter but will succumb to summer heat.
Pansies like full to part sun and moist, rich soil with good drainage. Deadheading encourages continued blooming.
8. Nemesia (Nemesia strumosa)
Also called cape jewels, nemesia originates from South Africa and is available in a stunning range of colors. The two-lipped flowers resemble orchids or pansies, with a fanned upper lip and two-lobed lower lip. Though they bloom continuously in mild climates, hot summers will cause them to die back.
Nemesia grows best in full sun with some afternoon shade and rich, moist, well-drained soil.
9. Cineraria (Pericallis x hybrida)
The daisy-like flowers of cineraria come in bold colors, often with a contrasting eye surrounded by a white ring, making the plant look like it is glowing. This cool-season annual blooms in the spring and is well-suited to containers.
Cineraria prefers consistently moist, well-drained soil in part shade.
10. Fuchsia (Fuchsia x hybrida)
Fuchsia comes in several bright colors but is often found with hot pink sepals and violet petals. The distinctive, dangling flowers add a tropical flair to the landscape. Though upright varieties may also be planted, fuchsias with a drooping habit are perfect for hanging baskets.
Excellent for porches and other darker areas, fuchsias like part to full shade and rich, moist soil.
11. Black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata)
Though not related to its namesake, the black-eyed Susan vine has similar flowers with dark centers and golden petals, but with a trumpet shape. This twining vine can grow three to eight feet high when provided vertical support, or it can be planted in a hanging basket to cascade over the sides.
Black-eyed Susan vine prefers moist, rich, well-drained soil in full sun, perhaps with some afternoon shade.
Beautiful Annual Flowers That Attract Butterflies
Attracting butterflies to your garden is fun and beneficial too. These annual flowers are magnets for pretty butterflies. You can easily crate a butterfly haven by planting a few form this list in your garden.
Beautiful Deer-Resistant Annual Flowers
There’s noting worse than coming home to a garden destroyed by deer. Here are some annuals flowers deer will avoid.