May is here, we are entering the fifth month of this year, how quickly time is passing. Today is the last chance to visit the Garden Center’s annual spring Flower Show. Come to The Crescent, 904 N. Patterson St., from 1 until 4 p.m. to see the unique, interesting Designs and beautiful Horticulture specimens. Designs are in the Crescent, Horticulture is displayed in the adjacent auditorium. Take a walk through the Gardens to see the splashing fountain surrounded by clipped boxwood hedges that outline the flower beds maintained by the garden clubs. Each bed is planted with different flowers, herbs and small shrubs.
Town and Country Garden Club is selling caladium bulbs at The Garden Center’s kindergarten building today. They sell caladiums each year as their main fundraising project. This year they have three white varieties: White Queen — white marbled with green and accented with rich red veins (a real beauty). White Christmas and Candidum — white with green veins and edge. Two red varieties: Red Flash and Frieda Hemple — red with a green border. Two pink varieties: Carolyn Whorton and Fannie Munson — magnificent pink with crimson veins. One miniature variety — Miss Muffet — a yellowish-white with a hint of green sprinkled with rose spots (my favorite). Bulbs sell for 50 cents each, except for Miss Muffet which is 70 cents. For more information, call Helen Lyons at 794-1116.
I’ve been waiting for the soil to warm up to see how many of my caladium bulbs will come back this year. Only a few have sprouted their pretty leaves, but those have just broken the surface within the last few days so I’m hopeful many will return. Whether most return or were killed by the unusual cold winter, I know I’m going to add more bulbs to the ones I have. Caladiums provide color from the time they come up until late in the fall. Two or three in a container are great to add instant color to an entrance or patio and a mass planting is magnificent. A few planted in groups will pull the eye along a path or border and tie the area together. I tuck a few bulbs in anywhere I want a splash of color or to brighten a shady spot. If you don’t get by The Garden Center today, give Helen a call as the bulbs have just arrived and she will have them available for a while.
We are all working on getting our gardens ready to produce wave after wave of blooming plants through late spring and summer. As early spring bloomers fade away, we need to have a new crop of flowers waiting among the ones that are finishing up, ready to take over the next color cycle.
Seed-grown plants are great to take over the task of producing summer color. They can be grown while spring-bloomers are putting on their show and will be ready to fill in between early bloomers as they begin to fade. Now that the soil has warmed up, almost any warm-season plant can be quickly grown from seed.
Some of the easiest plants to grow from seed are marigold, zinnia, sunflowers, cosmos, cleome, moss rose, nasturtium, castor beans and morning glories. All germinate quickly, grow fast and many can be planted where you want them to grow without having to transplant.
Marigolds and zinnias are available in a wide variety of sizes and forms. French marigolds are small-flowered and low growing. African species grow three to four feet tall with flowers several inches across. Single, double, flat and dome flower forms are available. Colors range through many shades of yellow, orange, burgundy, white and bicolors. Zinnias are just as varied. Lilliput zinnias only grow about 12 inches tall and have small one to two-inch diameter flowers. If you want tall back-of-the-border flowers, zinnia seed can be purchased that will produce plants up to four feet tall with five-inch flowers. Flowers come in many forms — singles, doubles, cactus-flowered, dome or flat. Colors are available in shades of red, pink, yellow, white, orange, bicolors and even green.
Cleome is a tall plant, fast growing with spiny branches tipped with clusters of spiraling flowers that resemble a leggy spider. Its common name is spider flower. Flowers are pleasantly scented (fruit-like), and come in pink, lilac or white. This is a plant that should be placed at the rear of the border or mass planted for dramatic effect.
Castor bean plants are striking and unusual. They are not recommended around children as they are poisonous if eaten or chewed. They have bold foliage, grow several feet high with intense red new growth and red-veined mature leaves, colorful flower buds and attractive seed pods. They can be used as a border plant or focal point. Growing in a container will reduce size, if desired as a patio plant.
Cosmos are quick to sprout and very fast growing. Tall varieties have a tendency to flop over if not staked. Shorter varieties are preferred for smaller spaces or in front of a border. Several flower forms are available in a wide range of red, pink, purple, orange, yellow and lilac shades along with white.
Nasturtiums come in two types, low-growing and climbing, both are easy to grow, do well in heat and drought once they are established and do not require fertilizing. When buying seed be sure you are getting the type you want. Climbers quickly grow six to eight feet high, low-growers form mounds of foliage, and both produce an abundance of bright-colored flowers in all hues except blue and purple. Nasturtium flowers are edible, adding a tangy taste to salads or can be used as an edible decoration.
Moss rose (portulaca) requires full sun. It is a very low-growing plant with fleshy needle-like foliage. It makes a lovely front-of-the-border or container plant. It has bright colored, two-inch flowers. Older varieties’ flowers may close in cloudy weather. Deadheading is not required to keep moss rose blooming over a long period of time.
Everyone is familiar with sunflowers, but may not be aware of the improvements made in the past few years. Sunflowers are quick to germinate and are best planted where you want them to grow. They make great plants for children as they are so impressive and fast growing. If you only think of sunflowers as being yellow or gold, you haven’t seen the newest varieties. They produce snowy white flowers with black centers, burgundy flowers with darker centers, fluffy-looking golden-yellow flowers with crested-green centers, pale yellow with brown centers, yellow streaked with burgundy flowers, the combinations seem endless. Some varieties are only 18 inches tall while others reach 10 feet tall and all sizes in between, some have only one huge flower head, others have a branching growth habit with 20 or more flowers per plant. All require full sun.
Morning glories are strong vines that grow quickly and cover themselves with colorful flowers that bloom in the morning and close in early afternoon. Seed should be soaked in water for 24 hours before they are planted — that helps soften the hard covering that protects the seed and speeds sprouting. Cultivated varieties are just as hardy and fast growing as their weedy cousins. Most grow six to 10 feet tall and need something to support them like a trellis, fence, shrub, etc.
A few packs of seed are inexpensive, yield many plants and it is very satisfying to see tiny little sprouts grow into healthy plants that produce an abundance of lovely flowers. If you don’t usually grow from seeds, start with easy species and once you realize how simple it is, you may want to grow a wide variety of plants from seed. The most important thing is to keep the growing medium (whether in flats, pots or in the ground) moist at all times, until the seeds germinate and form a root system that can support them. It may take daily watering, especially if conditions are windy or very hot. Consider the sprouting seed to be like babies — they need checking on often at first, as they grow they can go longer periods with less care, but the first few weeks are critically important to their survival.
I had planned to discuss sedums, how easy they are to grow and what great diversity they contain, but, I’m out of space. I guess they will have to wait until another time. See you next week.