Add a splash of bright color to your container gardens and hanging baskets with this easy-to-grow annual.
The bidens plant started with simple yellow blooms, but it’s now available in various colors.
This tough annual can keep blooming through some genuinely rough conditions.
Credit: Denny Schrock
Bidens are a good pick for containers, hanging plants, and planter boxes because of their abundant flowers.
Dig a holeabout twice the diameter of the nursery container.
Plant bidens about 10 to 15 inches apart to allow for good air circulation.
Credit: Denny Schrock
Bidens plants used to be mainly oranges and yellows but now include pinks and whites.
Another improvement for bidens has been plant habits.
Light
Bidens should get at least six hours a day of full sunlight.
Credit: David Speer
Soil and Water
Plant in fertile,well-drained soilwith a pH between 5.5 and 6.3.
Temperature and Humidity
The temperature tolerance depends on the variety.
For the amount to use, follow product label instructions.
Credit: Andrew Drake
Potting and Repotting Bidens
Bidens makegood potted plants.
Use a pot with large drainage holes, preferably terra-cotta, to wick away excess moisture.
Fill it with a well-draining potting mix.
Credit: Illustration by Mavis Augustine Torke
For a single plant, the pot should be at least 6 inches in diameter.
Potted plants need more frequent watering and fertilizer than inground plants due to the loss of nutrients through drainage.
Fortunately, many new varieties are sterile, with no sticky seeds to worry about.
Whiteflies may be a problemfor bidens, and botrytis and pythium are diseases that can afflict plants.
How to Propagate Bidens
The best way to propagate bidens is through seeds.
Startthe seeds indoorsabout six weeks before the last frost date to get a head start on the season.
Use seed flats or small pots filled with sterile, damp potting mix.
Keep the pots well-watered in a warm, bright location, ideally under grow lights.
Harden off the seedlings before transplanting them outside in garden beds or containers after the last frost.
The vigorous drought-tolerant plants are perfect for containers.
It is covered in large orange-red flowers from spring through fall.
Zones 3-8
Bidens Companion Plants
Angelonia
Angelonia isalso called summer snapdragon.
It’s the perfect plant for adding bright color to hot, sunny spaces.
This tough plant blooms all summer long with spirelike spikes of blooms.
Keep an eye out for the sweetly scented selections.
While most gardeners treat angelonia as an annual, it’s a tough perennial in its hardy Zones.
Zones 9-10
Geranium
Geraniums havebeen a gardener’s favoritefor well over a century.
Traditional bedding types love hot weather and hold up well to dry conditions; many offer colorful foliage.
Though most geraniums are grown as annuals, they are perennials in their hardy Zones.
If you like, bring them indoors to overwinter, then replant outdoors in spring.
Or they can bloom indoors all year long if they get enough light.
There are over 200 types of bidens.
