diff --git a/src/app/partials/annotations_editor.html b/src/app/partials/annotations_editor.html
index cb9db2244d6..c72194b6f6a 100644
--- a/src/app/partials/annotations_editor.html
+++ b/src/app/partials/annotations_editor.html
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@
 	<div class="dashboard-editor-body">
 		<div class="editor-row row" ng-if="editor.index == 0">
 			<div class="span6">
+				<div ng-if="variables.length === 0">
+					<em>No annotations defined</em>
+				</div>
 				<table class="grafana-options-table">
 					<tr ng-repeat="annotation in annotations">
 						<td style="width:90%">
diff --git a/src/app/services/elasticsearch/es-datasource.js b/src/app/services/elasticsearch/es-datasource.js
index 34db3b50d8a..721ba00881b 100644
--- a/src/app/services/elasticsearch/es-datasource.js
+++ b/src/app/services/elasticsearch/es-datasource.js
@@ -76,7 +76,11 @@ function (angular, _, $, config, kbn, moment) {
       var queryInterpolated = templateSrv.replace(queryString);
       var filter = { "bool": { "must": [{ "range": range }] } };
       var query = { "bool": { "should": [{ "query_string": { "query": queryInterpolated } }] } };
-      var data = { "query" : { "filtered": { "query" : query, "filter": filter } }, "size": 100 };
+      var data = {
+        "fields": [timeField, "_source"],
+        "query" : { "filtered": { "query" : query, "filter": filter } },
+        "size": 100
+      };
 
       return this._request('POST', '/_search', annotation.index, data).then(function(results) {
         var list = [];
@@ -84,9 +88,16 @@ function (angular, _, $, config, kbn, moment) {
 
         for (var i = 0; i < hits.length; i++) {
           var source = hits[i]._source;
+          var fields = hits[i].fields;
+          var time = source[timeField];
+
+          if (_.isString(fields[timeField]) || _.isNumber(fields[timeField])) {
+            time = fields[timeField];
+          }
+
           var event = {
             annotation: annotation,
-            time: moment.utc(source[timeField]).valueOf(),
+            time: moment.utc(time).valueOf(),
             title: source[titleField],
           };