These plants do present a drawback: Greenhouses often do not offer border annuals and you have to grow them from seed. This means some extra work, such as sowing them in a cold frame (or sunny windowsill), pricking them out into smaller pots or trays, then hardening them off before transferring to the border.

SOURCES

• Check garden centers and nurseries for seeds and plants.     • Rahn's Greenhouses, Gray Road in Winton Place, has “Cleome” in pots.     • Adopt-a-Plant in Harrison has Verbena bonariensis in pots.

        First on my list of border annuals is Cleome hassleranna or “Spider Flower.” Cleome colors range from violet to pink to pure white. There are color mixtures, too. These plants often reach 3-5 feet; use them from the center to the back of a long border.

        Another tall border plant, Verbena bonariensis, sometimes will come back the next year, seeding themselves at random. But I like to use fresh plants each season. The purple-flowered plant grows to about 4 feet. Plant it behind gray-leaved plants, such as Festuca glauca and Salvia officinalis and mix it with orange and yellow flowers — Achillea “Moonshine” or Oenothera tetragona “Fireworks,” for example. Verbena bonariensis flowers up to frost.

        Be sure to make generous use of Cosmos bipinnatus hybrids. You can buy cosmos in all shades, as doubles or singles and with unusual flower petals. The pure white strain “Purity” is especially attractive. If your soil is rich, cosmos will grow up to 5 feet by 3-4 feet wide and may need staking. Plant cosmos to fill between shrubs and other perennials. Its fresh, sea-green foliage is a bonus.

        Don't overlook using flowering tobacco (Nicotiana species and hybrids). I am not referring to the dwarf bedding varieties with little or no scent, but the flamboyant kinds that perfume the air at night. Nicotiana sylvestris produces candelabra spikes of white, deliciously scented trumpet-shaped flowers above huge paddle-shaped leaves. Because of its height, position plants at each end of a long, sunny border or among shrubs where it will flower from August until frost.

        Contact Tim Morehouse at The Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH 45202; www.getmoregarden.com. If writing, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

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