In article , Rick McGreal
writes
Kay Easton wrote in
:

An interesting comment. Blaze of colour suggest pollination by bees.
First thought was - are most annuals bee-pollinated? - but then realised
the answer is 'no' - for example - there are many annual grasses, and
they're wind pollinated, and things like night-scented stock are moth-
pollinated and attract by scent and colours that show in the half light.
So the bright colours of many annuals go back to year earlier comment of
'why bother?' - if you are going to bother with growing something which
is only going to be around for a year, you want it to be worth the
effort, so you'll concentrate on the showy things like poppies,
eschscholtzia, nasturtium...

But there are many times where you will see annuals used as border plants
that are well visited by bees and other flying insects...

I think that annuals seem to go for any kind of method to pass and spread
their seeds

Yes, that's what I was getting at - there is the same range of
pollination methods, but it's our preference for the showy things which
means that so many of the annuals we grow are the ones which are
pollinated by bees etc, rather than the wind or moth pollinated ones
which are less showy.

ie - annuals that we use tend to be showy. This is not because annuals
as a whole tend to go for bee pollination, but because we tend to like
the same flowers as the bees do, and grow those .

But one generalisation about annuals - since they are using a seed based
survival strategy, they are going to put a lot of effort into flowers,
so whether it's scent, abundant pollen, or a good show to attract bees
that they're going for, I'd guess that annuals probably give you a good
flower:leaf ratio for your money.

Oh yes....
Don't doubt that.....
But it just seems to me that annuals don't really match up against other
types of flower....
Maybe its personal...*Shrug*

I'm with you. I can't be bothered to grow something that I'll have to
grow again next year. And I hate the idea of growing the same thing
every year - I regard seed sowing as a learning process - discovering
what this plant is like during its whole life cycle. And, finally, I
have so many slugs that I need a bit of toughness before I plants stuff
out, and this is more difficult to achieve with annuals.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm