Garden Tips & Resources

Archive for the ‘Flower Garden’ Category

No garden ever seems quite complete if it doesn’t have some shade of red or pink flowers blooming in it. It’s quite possible that red and pink are the most popular shades of flowers actually, and with good reason. There are hundreds of plants which create flower blooms in these shades, and when you have large groups of red or pink in your garden, you can’t help but have it noticed around the neighborhood.

Roses of course are possibly one of the most favorite flowers to grow in shades of red or pink, and they can of course be grown as bushes and shrubs, or you can choose to grow climbing rose vines or wild roses and miniature roses too.

Tulips are probably the second most favorite garden flowers to grow, and like roses, these too come in a variety of shades of both red and pink. There are many other types of red and pink flowers to choose from though, so we’ll take a look at several of those here…

Amaryllis – Like tulips and roses, these flowers are often grown in cutting gardens, so the beautiful flowers can be put on display inside the house as often as possible. They can be grown indoors or out, and they’re resistant to deers outside too. Various species of the Amaryllis bloom in deep, bright red colors too. Try out the Red Peacock, Red Lion, and Ferrari varieties for the deepest splashes of red blooms.

Astilbe – These are another type of plant which can be found in various shades of deep red. Other related colors include peaches and pinks too. These feathery flowers stand up tall on stalks above the plants which produce them. The flower stalks tend to attract hummingbirds, and the foilage is quite interesting in the winter time too.

The Jacobean Lily, or Aztec Lily, produces amazing blood red flowers which bloom very well in the spring time. This flower can be grown outdoors in the garden bed, in containers on the patio, or as an indoor house plant.

Spiraea ‘Magic Carpet’ – This plant will grow to about one and one half feet tall, and spread about two feet wide. It produces a deep pink to red colored flower cluster in early summer. By fall, the leaves start turning a reddish color of their own, and often this plant will stay colorful through November.

March has been called the 3:00 A.M. of the year – it isn’t quite winter and it certainly isn’t spring. The weather cannot be depended upon – a warm sunny day momentarily may freeze into a blizzard, and a blizzard may melt away under a seventy-degree sun.

The only thing predictable about March – as a few million people have already noted – is its complete unpredictability. Here in Connecticut we can be pretty sure of snow during the month.

But through all the weather’s vagaries we had the surprise and joy of a lovely little winter flower garden beside the front door. The gap between winter and spring was gaily bridged by this garden’s rainbow of color. While on our place we have a minimum of cultivated areas and flower beds, I wouldn’t be without this one little garden spot even if it demanded a lot of care – which it doesn’t.

The L-shaped area, five by seven and about two feet wide, is protected on the west and north by the house wall, and exposed to south and east. Daily from 3:00 P.M. on the house shades the area—and some shade is desirable. The crocuses here bloom sometimes two months ahead of those out in the meadow.

Surely you have a similar, sheltered area somewhere near your front or back door. At least eight kinds of early-blooming bulbs and perennials are ready, willing and able to create for you a sensational March display. Planting is done in late August and early September.

There is an advantage in having such a garden near the front door. Each time you go in or out your heart skips a beat at the courage of these diminutive shoots. And, with an icy wind howling down your neck you are rarely tempted to wander far afield in search of early bloom. Dinner guests are equally enchanted as the front door light shines out on the flowers emerging in all weather and offering them a cordial welcome.

Every day during March – almost every hour, it seems – something happens in our tiny area, something new invites a brief pause and glance at the unfolding blossoms. Such a garden is simple to care for – small and well within the supply of time and energy of everyone. When the early flowers are gone you can fill in with zinnias and marigolds for a summer-long blaze of color lasting until heavy autumn frosts.

Right now why not select a possible site? Either prepare with hay, if planting time is some months ahead, or start right in and dig down a foot or so. Remove all old roots and rocks; add plenty of compost and manure, perhaps a bushel or two of each. You will do well to raise this garden a little above the surrounding earth level. We edged our with bricks to separate it from the gravel walk.

Eight Of Success

The first of the eight “little giants” to put in an appearance is winter aconite (eranthis). One March day you’ll observe small yellow buttercups resting on the snow, each with an Elizabethan ruff of greenery around its neck. (Eranthis is a member of the buttercup family). This tuberous rooted hardy perennial produces little blooms on 4-inch stems that last many days in chilly weather, and seem to be a tangible and visible sign that spring is somewhere near. Even in northern New England, eranthis may open in February if it is an early season. Once in our snow garden a blossom was encased in a diminutive bubble of ice. That day, time slipped by while I just stood there in wonder and admiration.

The important rule for eranthis is not to wait until autumn to order and plant. Send for the tuberous roots in August and get them underground in a hurry so they have time to grow a fine root system before winter. The flowers will be extra large and handsome if bulbs are planted this early. When the package arrives don’t be discouraged if it appears you have invested in a mere bundle of small dead roots. In spite of appearances, there is a golden promise in each wizened little corm. Plant immediately upon arrival, for they are ready to grow. Set 2 inches deep, 3 inches apart, and eighteen bulbs to a square foot. In full sun or semi shade they will reseed and naturalize in a rewarding manner.

Flowers are a great way to accent your home’s landscaping. They have a knack for complementing all of the previous flora which you or previous owners may have planted in your front or back yard with their elegant beauty and timeless forms.

Unfortunately for most amateur gardeners, flowering plants are both a blessing and a curse as they provide unsurpassed beauty and style but generally require lots of care and maintenance if you want them to look spectacular throughout the year.

While this is true for most flowering plants, there are a variety of more durable flowers which have been shown to survive just about anything with their beautiful flowers still intact. These amazing plants are commonly known as sedum, and one variety in particular – autumn fire sedum is an incredibly durable plant which produces flowers the colors of which you could have only dreamed of.

One of the reasons that autumn fire sedum plants are so incredibly durable is because they are constructed like tanks of the plant world. With their long, thick and robust stems they are able to support the weight of their big, beautiful flowers – a feat that most other plant species cannot readily undertake.

As long as you can provide your autumn fire sedum plants with the proper amount of drainage and a healthy dose of water from time to time, you will have an amazing garden that can stand up to even the harshest abuse.

While this astounding durability is true for nearly all varieties of sedum, the autumn fire sedum is a breed apart from the rest. Taking its name from the time it blooms (August to October) and the brilliant colors of its blossoms, autumn fire sedum is surely a plant not to be missed with its lavish oranges, yellows and reds. These bronze and coppery flowers are well matched with the grayish green leaves of the plant itself, lending it to be a must have plant for any home garden.

Many flowers bloom with a variety of colors throughout their flowering season, and some of the most beautiful are shades of purple. Now, in some cases a “purple” flower might actually look closer to a shade of red, and blue flowers don’t always look quite blue either. But getting exact matching shades is of course possible if you plant the same flowers, but getting shades of a color usually adds much more interest to the garden.

One of my favorite flowers which blooms in a pale lavendar purple color is a Morning Glory. These flowers can come in a whole host of colors, but some varieties rebloom with just certain specific colors instead. Morning glories grow on vines which will climb a trellis, fence, or bush, and they’ll even creep out across the yard in a ground cover like fashion if you let them. The flowers open early in the mornings, and close by midday.

Certain types of Clematis are thought to be purple in color too. The ‘Jackman’ variety is a dark reddish purple which blooms in July. This is also a vine style plant, which will grow from seven to ten feet in full sunlight.

Aster is another flowering plant which comes in various shades of purple. The ‘Professor Kippenburg’ variety has a lovely shade of light purple flowers which look like small daisies. The flower blooms themselves are only about one to two inches in size, but the plant will spread from twelve to eighteen inches and stand eighteen to twenty inches tall too. This version of Aster is popular with butterflies and birds, and it usually blooms from early autumn till the first frost.

The Birch Hybrid Bellflower is an excellent low growing ground cover which only reaches about four inches in height. This plant produces medium purple to bluish colored flowers with a fluted, or bell shape to them. The flowers come out in late spring and will keep blooming till late summer if they’re deadheaded regularly.

Various types of Geraniums also produce flowers in shades of purple or blue. The ‘Brookside’ is one type which has dark purple to blue flowers which bloom from June through August. Geraniums in general have amazingly colorful fall colors too: Oranges, reds, browns, and yellows. So any of the varieties which produce blue or purple flowers really look particularly stunning with all of those colors mixed together.

Yellow is a beautiful, vibrant color that seems to be full of life and happiness. It’s an excellent color to add to your garden too, when you want to attract butterflies, hummingbirds, or other birds. Large batches of bright yellow in the garden are particularly attractive for hummingbirds.

Whether you want to create an all yellow flower garden, or you’d simply like to add splashes of yellow to your existing color mix, here are several suggestions for you…

Desert or Mexican Goldpoppy – These adorable poppy flowers have a color that ranges from yellow to orange, and they bloom from February through May in the Western desert states such as Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas. These flowers open wide on bright sunny days, and close at night time or when it’s cloudy.

Yellow Evening Primrose – This is an herb which is sometimes called a sundrop, and it blooms from February to May in Arizona and California. It’s a small and delicate little yellow flower which opens around sunset, and closes again not long after the sun rises each morning. On cloudy days it may stay open longer too.

Yellow Jessamine – This bright yellow funnel shaped flower grows on vines which can reach up to twenty feet in length. The vines like to climb trees, and sometimes they’ll even reach from one to another as they grow. The beautiful yellow flower blooms are sweetly scented, and they tend to bloom from March through May.

Coreopsis – These cheerful little yellow flowers look a bit like a daisy. Some varieties have petals which are primarily yellow, with a touch of dark orange in the center. Coreopsis are drought resistant perennials, which look wonderful in hanging baskets, flower beds, or wild flower gardens.

Nasturtium – This is an edible annual flower which blooms in bright yellow or orange. It can be grown as a small compact bush type of plant, or as a vine, and they prefer to grow in full sunlight. They don’t do well with heat however, preferring areas which have cool dry summers instead.

This is of course just a small sampling of the various kinds of flowers you can grow which bloom in shades of bright yellow or orange. If you prefer more formal looking flowers in your garden, you’ll be happy to know there are plenty of yellow roses and yellow tulips you can grow too. Alternatively if you’d like a wildflower or natural garden, there are also many different native plants which produce yellow and orange flower blooms too.

Annuals provide more color, more quickly than any other group of flowering plants. They definitely give you the biggest “bang” for your color buck! Moreover, they give you planting choices as well: you can plant them from seed or from seedling six packs or as already established plants in four, six or eight inch pots. 

The life cycle of annuals is to sprout from seed, flower, set seed, and die within one growing season. Many flowers, vegetables, and herbs are planted as annuals, either seeded or set out in the spring to grow during the summer and die when frost hits.

Some annuals will reseed themselves, thereby providing several years of colorful viewing pleasure for minimal expenditure of effort. Annuals come in virtually every color, height, and leaf texture there is; they are especially showy in masses of solid or mixed colors, but also appealing when planted in small groups or as colorful accent plants in perennial borders.

Many annuals are also well suited for container gardens on porches, roof gardens, terraces, patios and decks, while some annual vines may be grown on fences, arbors, porch rails, or trellises.

Here are some planting suggestions that will add annual color to your garden:

To make your garden glow with yellow and orange shades, choose marigolds, nasturtiums, mimulus, celosia, chrysanthemums, California poppies, or sunflowers.

For pink color accents, include some wax begonias, snapdragons, cosmos, dianthus, impatiens, portulaca or petunias.

Blue choices include ageratum, browallia, heliotrope, morning glories, lobelia, forget-me-nots and torenia.

The best white annuals are alyssum, crepis, gypsophilia, nicotiana and mullien.

For gorgeous foliage annuals, choose amaranthus, ornamental cabbage, coleus, euphorbia or castor oil plant.

Though annuals are less costly than perennials, they do require the same high level of soil preparation, fertilizing, watering and weeding as their more permanent plant relatives. Most annuals hail from semiarid climates and require full sunshine to thrive; some, however, came originally from woodland environs and do well in shadier sites.

Annuals that need full sun, such as periwinkle and marigold, grow and flower best when they receive at least 4 to 6 hours of direct sunlight each day, while woodland-based species perform best under partial to heavy shade. When planting annuals, avoid heavy soils and areas where water can collect and become waterlogged as well as areas close to large trees and shrubs with thirsty feeder roots.

Most gardeners add annual flowers to their gardens, window boxes and containers to ensure that there is obvious color in the garden all season long. It also is ideal for filling ‘gap’ times when your perennials are not in bloom, such as early summer and late fall. There are so many varieties of annual blooms that the only limits to what you can include in your garden is restricted by your imagination!