What is a plant’s life cycle?
Each plant has a different life cycle. As you have witnessed in your garden, some plants live for years and years while others are only alive one single season. The differing life cycles are categorized by terms such as perennial, annual, and biennial. By understanding these terms you can better understand your plants needs and the cycles that take place in your garden.
Annual Information
Annual plants are garden flowers such as sunflowers, flax, and nasturtium. Additionally, most vegetable plants are annuals. These plants go through a relatively quick life cycle. During their appropriate growing growing season they produce roots, leaves and a stock rather quickly with the goal of producing a flower. This flower then soon fades to produce seeds. This type of plant will not come back as after it produces seeds, it will soon die.
Benefits of growing annuals are numerous. You can use them to add color and definition to a flower garden while not committing to the same plant for several seasons. Additionally, most vegetable plants are annuals. As you many have noted on the Gardening 101 page, vegetable plants are divided into two main categories; warm season and cool season. In California and many other milder climates, these plants can “overwinter”. This means they are capable of living through the winter, where in other places the harsh weather would kill it. “Overwintering” is not the same a perenialization.
Biennial Information
Biennial plants are plants such as foxglove and the caraway herb. Biennials can be taller due to the extra season of growing. You will notice that Biennials are much less common than annuals and perennials.
Perennial Information
Perennials are plants such as yarrow and many garden flowers. Perennials vary greatly depending on the temperature and climate zone they are grown in. For example, the areas of harsh winters like Alaska, many plants that can grow for more season in other regions will die in their winters. Similarly, for San Diegans ours mild winters will allow for many annuals to continue to live and grow for more than one season.
The most common examples of this is tomatoes plants. As many gardeners have experienced a tomatoes plant in some areas of San Diego can continue to live through the winter months to produce for a second time during the second summer. This is known as perennialization.
Microclimates greatly influence what plants can be perennialized in San Diego. For quick reference here is a general idea of what has been known to grow for more than one season in particular microclimates. Please keep in mind that every gardener has different experiences and they may not be identical to ours.
