Marguerite Daisy

The quintessential cottage flower, pinks are treasured for their grasslike blue-green foliage and abundant starry flowers, which are often spicily fragrant. Depending on the type of pink, flowers appear in spring or summer and tend to be pink, red, white, rose, or lavender, but come in nearly all shades except true blue. Plants range from tiny creeping groundcovers to 30-inch-tall cut flowers, which are a favorite with florists. Foliage is blue-green.Shown above: 'Firewitch' dianthus

The pale and dark blues of larkspur are some of the prettiest you'll find in the garden. And they come with little effort. Plant larkspur once and allow the flower heads to ripen, scattering their seed, and you'll be assured of a steady supply of larkspur in your garden for decades. All you'll need to do is pull out the ones you don't want!Larkspur is basically an annual version of delphinium, an all-time favorite perennial. Larkspur produces lovely spikes of blue, purple, pink, or white flowers in spring and summer. They look best clustered in small patches.Like many cool-season annuals, it's a good winter-blooming plant for the Deep South. Larkspur is so easy to grow that it often self seeds in the garden, coming back year after year. Plant larkspur from seed directly in the garden in early spring. Larkspur doesn't like to be transplanted. It prefers rich, well-drained soil and ample water.When hot weather strikes and larkspur starts to brown and fade, pull out plants, but be sure to leave a few to brown and reseed.

Nemesia is a charming cool-season annual with pretty little snapdragon-shape flowers -- often fragrant -- that bloom in a wide range of colors. It does best in spring and fall (winter in mild-winter climates), though some varieties have better heat-tolerance than others. In cool-summer areas, such as the Pacific Northwest, nemesia will continue to bloom right through the summer into fall. Nemesia prefers moist, well-drained soil that's rich in organic matter.