Annuals become Perennials

[caters]

Since I am on New Earth in the same area as Memphis, TN which has warm and/or hot weather every month and very few days below or at freezing does this mean that my annuals like tomatoes and peppers will be perennials?

[Lindsaylew82]

Some are more hardy to warmer climates. Some annuals that shouldn't be perennial here in my state, SC, have come back for 4 years straight! I have 2, 4 year old snapdragons that I planted about 6 inches from my patio brick. I think the bricks insulate them during the cold winter, and keep them from dying all the way back.
I also have a five year old sage plant that has turned very tree like, with bark and everything. As well as a very large variegated thyme, and also a spreading marjoram it's not reseeding, it never dies back!
I have 3 yellow lantana that have come back for the 4th or 5th year. I can't remember when I planted them.

One thing they all have in common is that they're planted where they are sheltered from the cold.

Your post has me thinking about some micro variety of tomato planted very near them. I worry about fungal diseases. They are very prevalent here. My peppers get very woody here.
Interesting ideas! I'd like to move some of my plants inside sometime. I've seen other members here over winter peppers indoors with great success. I have geriatric cats. One that likes to eat inappropriate things, including any plant, flower or vegetable within reach (everywhere). One whose mission in life is to knock over any cup or pot like object that holds any liquid or solid substance. Inside in not optional...at this time. They're 15 though.

I'm off topic... I think the answer is probably not likely, for tomatoes and peppers. Maybe if you provide them someplace where they're protected from chilly or frosty conditions (like close to your foundation) and you can manage to keep them disease free. ( difficult in your area).
Nothing is impossible!

Best of luck!

[ElizabethB]

Caters - welcome to the forum

Good question. I live in south Louisiana,. I have never had tomatoes act as a perennial. They croak in the heat of summer. Fall tomatoes have never survived even the mildest winter. In our commonly mild winters I have had peppers - jalapeno, sweet bananas and green bells grow produce through the winter.

[rainbowgardener]

well, there are true annuals and there are tender perennials. Tender perennials can over-winter in mild winters or be kept alive indoors. Peppers are tender perennials. Sage is perennial, not even very tender. It over-winters in the ground in my zone 6 winters (but didn't make it when I had a zone 5 winter this past). It does get woody at the bottom. Thyme, oregano, marjoram are all hardy perennials that over winter outdoors for me (the oregano even made it through the fierce winter we had). So none of those are a question of annuals becoming perennials, they are just perennials. Lantana is a tropical perennial, hardy only in zones 9-11.

Tomatoes even though they are in the same family as peppers are a little different - tomatoes are vines and peppers are not. Tomatoes are listed as short-lived, tender perennials. IME they are actually a bit cold hardier than peppers and may keep going even through a light fall frost since they are very toughened up by then (the same frost in the spring would probably kill them). However, they do not deal with hot weather as well as peppers. So they are rather limited on both ends - can't handle cold winters or hot summers. I think they must have come from some equatorial area where it stays mild all year. However, I have spent time in Costa Rica, which seems like it should be the perfect tomato climate, between 70 and 85 year around, and they hardly have any tomatoes there. I never did figure out why.

[pinksand]

Kind of off topic, but I was recently reading about the history of tomatoes and some current bad press about the conditions on tomato farms in FL. I won't go into all of that, but most sources indicated that tomatoes first originated in Peru and wild plants can still be found in the Andes Mountains. The climate varies greatly by region in Peru and some areas do have an equatorial climate, but assuming the mountains are home I'd guess there are some seasonal changes in temperature.

Sometimes annuals do successfully overwinter outside, behaving like perennials. I'm in zone 7 and I remember my mom's dusty miller (hardy to zone 8 ) coming back year after year. They of course didn't make it through this past winter. Some annual plants also end up reseeding and appear to come back like perennial plants, although they've really just produced new plants. One that comes to mind in my garden is cleome, which is only hardy to zone 10, but sets seed and seemingly has come back so far in the 2 years we've been in our house.

[valley]

I was pleased to find Oregano would grow as a perennial at the mountain ranch. But since Oregano [ ragani ] is: Mountain Beauty, in Greek, I should have expected that.

Richard

[imafan26]

Tender annuals can be perennial in warm climates Impatiens, wax begonias are a couple that are listed as annuals but are perennial for me. I also have amaryllis, dahlias, gladiolus in the ground year round.

Technically peppers and tomatoes can live longer than a year. Some peppers do, but disease is usually what leads to their demise.

Other things like gingers do go dormant but will return on their own in the Spring.

Some plants are biennials like green onions, parsley, and carrots and will bloom the second year.

[caters]

well, there are true annuals and there are tender perennials. Tender perennials can over-winter in mild winters or be kept alive indoors. Peppers are tender perennials. Sage is perennial, not even very tender. It over-winters in the ground in my zone 6 winters (but didn't make it when I had a zone 5 winter this past). It does get woody at the bottom. Thyme, oregano, marjoram are all hardy perennials that over winter outdoors for me (the oregano even made it through the fierce winter we had). So none of those are a question of annuals becoming perennials, they are just perennials. Lantana is a tropical perennial, hardy only in zones 9-11.

Tomatoes even though they are in the same family as peppers are a little different - tomatoes are vines and peppers are not. Tomatoes are listed as short-lived, tender perennials. IME they are actually a bit cold hardier than peppers and may keep going even through a light fall frost since they are very toughened up by then (the same frost in the spring would probably kill them). However, they do not deal with hot weather as well as peppers. So they are rather limited on both ends - can't handle cold winters or hot summers. I think they must have come from some equatorial area where it stays mild all year. However, I have spent time in Costa Rica, which seems like it should be the perfect tomato climate, between 70 and 85 year around, and they hardly have any tomatoes there. I never did figure out why.

But grapes are vines and they are perennials and in fact several plants that grow vines are this way.

I have seen pepper plants become woody and like form bark at the bottom. I suppose that pepper plants grow to be some sort of tree if in the right conditions.

[Lindsaylew82]

I wrote a lengthy response, posted it, but I don't know where it went.... Weird....

Short summary...
I've never known common sage to behave as a perennial in my yard, biennial at best, even in the mildest of winter here. It doesn't survive if planted out in the garden more than 2 years. Flowering 2nd year and fizzling out. I've never experienced pineapple sage (the sage that I was talking about in the above mentioned post. My apologies for not specifying.) to overwinter, ever. That is until I planted in in a protected area where it stays warm through very cold nights.

Last winter was harsh! I lost many permanent fixtures in my yard and garden. 30 year old Hydrangea, lavender, bee balm.
I did NOT however lose my lantana, which is not reseeding, it's coming back from woody stems as are the snapdragons! Right here in 7a. I was skeptical about it though, as it waited until May to emerge, with the severity of our winter. I added 2 confetti lantana to go with the yellow.

I also had dusty miller coming back yearly, until this year.

I think hardiness is a relative term, and while it is a very dependable guideline, it is a guideline, not an absolute. Hardiness is subjective to growing conditions. What is not hardy out in the middle of my garden is hardy up against a dark brick wall that stays warm all night. Growing conditions can make or break hardiness. Even just 50' away.

[applestar]

I asked a similar question a while back.
Peppers are perennials in Ecuador -- zone equivalent 13.
Here's the answer Lorax, resident of Ecuador, posted in Subject: Perennial hot peppers - natural seasonal lifecycle?

Speaking as one who has all sorts of peppers in a no-winter environment, I can tell you this:

Bell peppers seem to live about 4-5 years, with the peak of their production and flavour in year 3. There's no noticeable leaf drop, just bi-annual flowering and fruit production.

Hot peppers like Aji and Cayenne live up to 10 years, with the peak of their production and flavour beginning in year 2 and running to year 7 or 8. These ones lose only their lower leaves twice yearly, followed by a huge growth flush and blossoms. Blooming seems to be stimulated by the beginning and end of the wet season - ie massive changes in moisture and humidity levels.

I also ruthlessly pinch my hot peppers in year 1 to promote bushiness, since they're going to end up looking kind of like bonsai trees by year 5, and I want as many productive branches as I can get.

So Tennessee is hardly Zone 13. But so far in my experience with overwintered peppers and based on reports from warmer climate members, I would say peppers have good chance of surviving minimum winter temperature of around mid-20's and be perennial, which is better survival feat than tomatoes.

Although imafan in Hawaii reports the opposite, I have found that, in my outdoor and indoor garden, tomatoes tend to succumb to diseases and pests more easily than peppers, and so far I am having better success with overwintering peppers indoors than tomatoes.

To answer the original question/proposal, "annuals" are sometimes called that -- or are "treated as annuals" -- because they won't survive the winter in the area, not because they actually only have one season life cycle. So those plants do not "become" perennials but would have been to begin with, and with some extraordinary measures, can be carried over the winter. But there ARE plants that really only live for the one season life cycle.

[valley]

I do overwinter my tomato and pepper plants. There are some plants I want very much but may be tough to overwinter here.

Lindsay, I've had the same experience, where posts go off into hyperspace, one or two have exited after I've seen them up.

Richard