For beautiful, bountiful borders, consider adding lots of annuals for cutting. When grown from seed they are very affordable, and if you keep cutting them for bouquets they will keep producing nectar-rich flowers that draw bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds all season. Many of my favorite seedy annuals were also favorites of homesteaders in the late 1800s.

Here are four annuals that add tremendous color and can take the heat and wildfire smoke (cough, cough). They are on the drought-tolerant side, and three of them are native to the Intermountain West.

Lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata, Zones 4–9)

Also called tickseed, Coreopsis lanceolata (seen above) can stand 3 feet tall, but it stays about 12 inches tall under most conditions. It provides lots of school-bus-yellow blooms, loves the heat, and doesn’t care if it’s on the dry side. This plant is a happy-go-lucky reseeder, and it’s simple to gather the seeds when they are thoroughly dry to plant more patches around your garden.

Lemon bee balm (Monarda citriodora, hardy annual or biennial)

Lemon bee balm also goes by the names of purple horsemint, lemon mint, and several other common names. Its citrusy fragrance is a welcome addition to the garden. It will reseed to form large colonies, so beware of that when you plant. All that reseeding, though, makes butterflies and bees happy.

Rocky Mountain bee plant (Cleome serrulata, annual)

Rocky Mountain bee plant is a show-stopper. It is also called skunk flower or Navajo spinach. It grows up to 4 feet tall with blooms that look like pink, white, and rose-colored fireworks. Lewis and Clark collected seeds from this plant in South Dakota. Culturally important to indigenous peoples, it has a history of being used for food, medicine, and dye. If you get too close, it does smell skunky, so keep your distance. The smell doesn’t seem to bother the bees or hummingbirds, and the plant blooms from mid-July until the first hard frost. It has long, dangling seedpods, and birds find the mature seeds tasty. It can be found throughout the West.

Zinnias (Zinnia cvs., annual)

Zinnias are the party girls in the garden. Striped, blotched, cactus-flowered, dahlia-flowered, single, double, tall, or short, there’s a zinnia for every garden. And there should be a zinnia or a hundred zinnias in every garden. These festive flowers love our hot, dry, sun-drenched summers. The more you cut them, the more flowers you will have.

Best of all, you can easily harvest the seeds from any of these plants for sharing or saving. Stay tuned for more tried and true garden favorites from the wild West.

—Mary Ann Newcomer is the author of two books: Rocky Mountain Gardener’s Handbook and Vegetable Gardening in the Mountain States.

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

Corona® Multi-Purpose Metal Mini Garden Shovel

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

Longer Service Life: The blade of this round small shovel is made of carbon steel, which can effectively improve the hardness by high temperature quenching, and the surface has anti-rust coating to avoid rusting. In the process of use when encountering hard objects will not bend and deformation. Sturdy Structure: The small garden shovel with D-handle, ergonomically designed grip can increase the grip of the hand when using, the handle is made of strong fiberglass, will not bend and break under heavy pressure. Quick Digging: Well-made digging shovel has a sharp blade, and the round shovel head is designed to easily penetrate the soil and cut quickly while digging to enhance your work efficiency.

Buy at Amazon

Berry & Bird Rabbiting Spade, Trenching Shovel

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

Ideal Tool for All Gardeners Use: Our heavy duty trenching shovel is designed by a professional gardening tool designer. Lifetime Durability: This heavy duty drain spade is made of high-quality stainless steel, it is very strong and durable, even if it is used for high-strength work, it will not bend. Ergonomic Wood Handle: The handle of this planting spade is made of ash hardwood harvested from FSC-certified forests and has an ergonomically streamlined design, making it very suitable for everyone's hands. Multi-Use: This digging shovel is generally used for digging trenches, digging holes, transplanting, edging, moving compost, cutting thick turf and furrowing. The sharp blade allows you to cut, scoop, dig, lift and dice in hard soil.

Buy at Amazon

Gardener's Log Book from NYBG

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

This weatherproof five-year log book includes the following features: · Sturdy waterproof cover to protect pages from rain and muddy soil · Lined pages and gridded paper for plotting beds · Five years of 12-month bloom and harvest grids for recording what you planted and when · Authoritative appendices on composting, pruning, pest and disease control, and container gardening · Useful reminders by season on fertilizing, mulching, and transplanting · Space for listing your favorite sources and suppliers.

Buy at Amazon