Kay Easton wrote in
:

Trouble is, gardeners and botanists use the same terms for a different
purpose. So to a gardener, an annual is one that won't survive our
winter (no matter how long it lives in its native country), a biennial
is one that you chuck after the second year, and a perennial is one
that keeps going year after year.

Thats pretty much what my mum said!

And I just don't see the point in an annual at all....Why have a plant
for just a few months?
Strange to say, plants don't choose their life cycle for our
convenience ;-)

They don't?
Why not?

Annuals concentrate on massive seeding into barish ground. And since
bare ground doesn't remain so for long, there's not point in staying
put and being crowded out by thugs - you set forth lots of seed to
colonise new bare spots, and die gracefully.

Aw.....Its sounds so romantic!
Going out in a blaze of glory!
Or blaze of colour if most pictures of annuals seem to suggest!