Thom and Vicki Stewart are Penn State Extension Master Gardeners who live and garden in Grove City. Their gardens include as many annuals, perennials and biennials as can be situated on their 1/5 acre.

In the often baffling world of plant jargon, you can encounter some confusing terminology.

When searching for plants to include in your garden, you find annuals, biennials and perennials. What do those terms really mean?

To plant scientists, a “true” annual is any plant that grows, flowers, fruits and dies in a single year.

For example, a marigold sprouts from seed, grows and flowers, produces seed and then dies in a few months.

During their life span, annuals work hard to produce seed for the next generation.

That makes these plants very prolific bloomers, and if you remove dying blossoms, they will continue to flower for a long time.

Prolific blooms make flowering annuals attractive; they provide abundant long-lasting color and grow quickly, but can be easily changed out yearly.

Annuals include favorites such as petunias, zinnias, lettuce, corn and peas.

Because they work so hard to reproduce, annuals appreciate regular feeding. We recommend a general purpose, soluble fertilizer (follow label instructions) on a weekly basis. Some annuals reseed at the end of the growing season.

A “true” perennial is a plant that continues to grow from one year to the next. Its goal is also to produce seed, but because its life is not limited to a single year, the perennial must produce enough stored food to survive over a dormant period.

Perennials are classified as herbaceous or woody.

Herbaceous perennials die back each winter but then regrow each spring and include garden chrysanthemums, Shasta daisies and tulips.

Most trees and shrubs are woody perennials which regrow and expand each year, leaving top growth through the dormant season.Perennials are an investment, growing from year to year and increasing in size. Because they use their energy to expand and develop a stronger root structure, in addition to producing flowers and seeds, their bloom times are relatively short.Usually, they flower for only two to four weeks, and removing spent blossoms won't significantly extend that time.Perennials are best fed a balanced garden fertilizer (10-10-10) three times during their growing season.Perennials can be characterized as hardy or tender.A perennial is hardy to your growing zone if it can survive multiple years in weather typical to your area whereas a tender perennial could grow on from year to year in a warmer growing zone, but will not survive winter outdoors in your planting zone.Gardeners often treat tender perennials as annuals.For example, peppers are “true” perennials, but are sensitive to freezing temperatures, so we grow them as annuals.The same is true with geraniums. Garden chrysanthemums are hardy perennials, but when planted in the fall do not have enough time to become sufficiently established to survive the winter, so they are often grown as annuals.Biennials are the “in-between” crowd. They grow from seed in their first year, produce abundant herbaceous growth, and die back in the fall.The second year, they produce new growth, flowers and seeds and then die.Common garden biennials are foxglove, hollyhocks and onions.Many biennials freely reseed at the end of their second year.If you have questions about planting annuals, perennials and biennials, call the Master Gardener Greenline at 724-287-4761, Ext. 229.

Snapdragons and blue salvia put on a striking show of color. Both of these flowers are considered tender perennials and are grown as annuals in our area. However, in growing Zones 8 and 9, these plants would be perennials and would survive the milder winters.