Stunning Displays of Annuals
June 2018 by Shelley Corey, Owner of The Mum Farm
When you come across a stunning display of annuals, whether it's a beautiful mass planting at a local college, a carefully curated display at a local museum, or even a stunning display outside a private home, you have to stop and realize that someone put a lot of thought behind that display. From the very beginning, decisions had to be made about which plants to grow. Would they need to be sun plants, or shade plants? How tall would the plants mature to? What color combinations would be the showiest?
After the planning stage, the work of readying the soil, adding compost, potting soil, to “lighten” our native heavy soil was a must. Spacing of the plants to allow each to reach their maximum size without overcrowding them. If planted too close, plants will have no option other than “grow upwards” giving a much taller display than the plants would normally grow to, along with giving them weak, thin stems that would be more apt to be damaged in a summer storm. Planting the plants at their optimum spacing allows the plants to grow into sturdy, healthy plants able to withstand winds, downpours and what ever else mother nature decides to throw at them!
When you see thriving annuals, you also know that someone is behind the scene; fertilizing, watering and generally caring for those plants. There are few plants that you can plant in the beginning of the season that will thrive on neglect and still perform optimally. Those few plants are geraniums ( although they benefit from dead-heading) and begonias. Those two types of plants are the ones I recommend for cemetery plantings because they are drought tolerant and pretty much take care of themselves.
Dead-heading benefits many annuals, but you have to know which ones need it and which ones do not. I recently had a customer at my counter who was purchasing a petunia hanging basket and complaining that she has a terrible time with her petunias…she dead-heads them, fertilizes them, takes excellent care of them, and could not understand why they always looked terrible. I explained that NONE of my petunias require dead-heading. Fertilizing them weekly is all they require to maintain constant blooms. She then proceeded to show me how she was dead-heading them. She was actually picking off new buds that were going to be opening and flowering! I couldn’t believe it! So, learn from her mistake…pay attention and look closely at your plants…become very familiar with new buds and old ,spent blossoms… it’s true, sometimes they do look similar, but just think of how your plants will benefit once you know the difference!
The biggest comment I have heard about last months' article is that everyone liked the comment, not to be overly concerned about the numbers on your fertilizer, just use one! It’s the truth. I was going to go into the scientific background about what each number stands for and all, but I realize that most of you don’t care. Like I said…just fertilize…plants need proper nutrition as much as we do!
Stunning displays of annuals have someone behind them caring for them…hopefully you are the person behind yours! Have a wonderful summer. Enjoy those annuals and vegetables. Smile when you water and fertilize those plants! You’re becoming an awesome gardener!