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False annuals are plants with tropical origins, or ones whose parents hail from the tropics, which means that they’re actually perennial — more long-lived — somewhere, somewhere warmer, somewhere far away like Costa Rica or Mexico. These pseudo-annuals, sometimes called tender perennials, can, at least in theory, be kept going over the winter and live to dress up your garden again next year. Examples of these tropical visitors include the coleus, geranium, impatiens, salvia, snapdragon, and wax begonia.

Meanwhile, biennials are plants that only live for two years. They grow their foliage and roots the first year and then flower the following year and then die. The most common examples are Canterbury bells, forget-me-nots, foxgloves, hollyhocks, pansies, stock, and verbascum (mullein). They frequently reseed themselves so some gardeners let them go to seed to ensure future plants. Most garden centers helpfully start these plants for you the season before or in early winter so they’re usually sold as annuals and flower the first year that you plant them.

However, if despite your best efforts, your wintered-over annuals don’t return to their former glory the following spring, accept their fate, pull them out, and replace them with new ones. Some of the annuals like marigolds, sunflowers, and zinnias reseed or self-sow themselves so they’ll sprout and grow plants the following spring when the ground warms. Depending on how aggressively they do this can be a good or bad thing.