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6 Full-Sun Flowering Spring Annuals

March 12, 2025
, Plants

As spring ushers in the warmer temperatures, inviting us out into the yard, it’s time to breathe new life into our flower beds. After months of staring at dormant and empty bed spaces, celebrate the season by planting plenty of blooming spring flowers. The 6 full-sun flowering spring annuals that are perfect for the sunny parts of your flower bed are Calibrachoa, Celosia, Geranium, Petchoa, Lobelia, and Zinnia.

Calibrachoa

Commonly referred to as “Million Bells,” Calibrachoa is a very low-maintenance annual known for giving a great display of small and colorful blooms throughout the spring. Calibrachoa is best suited for the front of a planting bed, ideally planted close to a wall due to its trailing habit. Available in almost every bloom color, Calibrachoa grows to an average height of 6-12 inches but can easily sprawl to a width of 24 inches.

Celosia

Celosia is the perfect full-sun spring annual when you find yourself looking to add bold, vivid color flowers to your spring landscaping checklist. Each individual Celosia bloom is several inches tall and wide, creating a pyramidal shape. The Celosia plant can most often be found with red, pink, or yellow blooms and matures to between 1 and 3 feet tall.

Geranium

The Geranium is a classic spring annual. In addition to loving full sun, Geraniums also prefer very well-drained soil, which is why they are most often planted in containers. Geraniums have bold, dark green foliage that forms a rounded cluster at the base of the plant. The red, pink, purple, or white Geranium blooms are massed together at the end of their own pedicel. Geraniums are modestly growing annuals, maturing to 18 inches tall and wide.

Petchoa

Petchoa is a relatively new annual just starting to make its way to nurseries. Petchoa is actually a hybrid plant that combines the Petunia and Calibrachoa. However, unlike Petunias’ untidy and often “sticky stems,” Petchoa is more self-cleaning. Petchoa also provides a greater variety of bloom colors and some blooms with a mix of colors. Petchoa works very well as a garden or container plant, as it can be found in a mounding or trailing form. On average, Petchoa grows approximately 12 inches tall and can sprawl to 18 inches wide.

Lobelia

In North Texas, Lobelia is actually considered more of a cool-season annual as it starts to produce its signature blue blooms in early March. These blooms rarely continue past April, so they can only be truly appreciated in spring. Lobelia blooms are small but easy to identify as they almost bear the appearance of an insect…two small petals on one side of the stem (resembling antennae) and three larger petals on the opposite side of the stem (appearing to be wings and body). We recommend planting Lobelia in either a container or along the sunny edges of your garden, as it is a small, trailing plant maturing only to 8-12 inches.

Zinnia

Zinnia absolutely loves the sun, and the bold blooms resemble small sunflowers. We recommend planting your Zinnia in late spring, sometime between mid-April and early May. Available in every bloom color imaginable, Zinnia is also available in many varieties ranging from small 8-inch growers all the way up to 3-foot growers.