Red annual salvia lines the front sidewalk at Rose Lane.
April showers bring May flowers, and now’s the time to put in your blooming annuals and perennials. Every nursery, box retailer and even grocery store offers huge selections of annuals and perennials at this time of year. The hardest decision is choosing what plants to purchase.
Ask yourself a few questions:
- Am I interested in one-and-done color or plants that keep on giving year after year?
- Where will I plant them: sun, shade, open flower beds, borders or containers?
- Do I want low-maintenance plants that require little deadheading or am I willing to pinch off dead blossoms regularly?
- Do I want to plant all one color or mix it up?
- How tall do I want the plants to grow?
- Is there a readily available water source nearby?
The answers to each of these questions will help save you money on the front end. You’ll determine how much area you have with full sun, and how much is full shade. Experienced gardeners know the saying “Right place, right plant,” and they take it seriously.
Annuals
By their name, they provide color and interest for only one season. They’re perfect for accent areas to create splashes of brightness for focal points in a garden, to line a walkway or to use in containers.
Use begonias, impatiens – choose the sun-tolerant New Guinea cultivars – petunias, pentas, tall-spiked Angelonia and annual salvia.
Red salvia is my favorite for my front sidewalk, giving an impressive statement as you drive into Rose Lane. Full sun, a sprinkle of slow-release fertilizer, regular watering and occasional deadheading will keep them blooming into the first frost of fall.
When planting annuals, remember to use foliage plants, such as coleus, Dusty Miller and polka dot plants. They’ll provide contrast to vibrant blooms and don’t require deadheading.
Thanks to hybridizers, many shade-loving annuals are perfect for less sunny places. New cultivars of impatiens are bred to be resistant to the fungus that spread several years ago. Look for “improved” on the tag. Blue ageratum, offers a nice contrast to reds, purples and yellows so common in annual selections.
Containers
To borrow from Hemingway, containers offer a “movable feast” of color. Located on front porches, positioned on plant stands, against a backdrop of evergreens in hard-to-dig places in the landscape, or a patio or deck, container plants are hard-workers in the summer garden.
The guideline for planting beautiful containers is to use a thriller, a filler and a spiller. The thriller is the tall plant in the middle, the one that draws attention to the container. The filler is a medium-sized plant with a rounded growth habit that’s less tall than the thriller. The spiller can be anything from Wave petunias and lime-colored creeping Jennie to variegated sweet potato vines and trailing plants like verbena.
Container gardening follows very few roles, so let your imagination go wild with color combinations and unusual textures creating interest.
Next month: all about perennials, bargains in the garden.
Photo: by Pamela A. Keene
