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Thursday, September 21, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: GARDENING: Linn Mills
Count on annuals to give your garden a burst of blooms
We all love annuals for their riotous colors, especially during the blahs of winter. They create masses of color filling containers, cheering people up and enlivening entertainment areas. The goals of annuals are simple: to grow quickly, flower spectacularly, set seed and, in the end, add to the compost pile. If you don't like your flowers this year, try other combinations next season. Despite their short life span, annuals put on a great show if you treat them right. That is, if you plant them in a sunny location, in a highly enriched soil and fertilize them regularly. They'll do the rest -- bloom profusely. Here are my top 10 annuals in reverse order: 10. Sweet pea is cherished by flower lovers, but when the heat sets in it stops blooming. The flowers are fragrant, ranging in colors from white to purple and in bicolors. Looking like miniature sunbonnets, the flowers may be bicolored, striped or mottled, and most have ruffled, wavy petals. To show them off, grow them up a trellis or fence. To hasten germination, soak the seeds in water overnight before planting. 9. Candytuft covers itself with a dense mass of white, pink, purple or crimson flowers. It makes a great edging and border plant. The plant grows about a foot tall and if it becomes rangy, shear it back and new flowers will burst forth. I often wonder why it isn't used more. 8. Garden mum is associated with football, homecomings, pumpkins and the tang of fall in the air. It hits your garden in full bloom and will continue until a hard frost, but it will bloom again next fall. Mums come in lusty yellows, zippy oranges, smoky purples, sandy tans, purest whites, pinks, lavenders -- all autumn colors that end the blooming season in a blaze of glory. Use them as border plants, filling beds with great sweeps of color, or plant them in clumps. To get the most out of the blooms, plant them in full sun. 7. Sweet alyssum is one of the best annuals for our area. It comes dressed with blooms in white, rose and lavender. The name sweet gives you an indication of its fragrance. Once pigeonholed as a border plant, it now is tumbling over walls, containers, hanging baskets and window boxes. It also fills in rock gardens, covers ground beneath taller plants and fills in between flagstones of walkways. Where I find it most useful is filling in between bulbs until they come into bloom. Even beginners like it because it is easy to start and flourishes in our weather. 6. Calendula is one of the stalwarts of the winter and spring gardens because it is easy to grow. The big daisylike orange-and-yellow flowers also come in cream-and-white shades, but plant in full sun to get the most color. You also might find it sold as a chrysanthemum, zinnia, daisy or potted marigold. Historically, people dried it to flavor their soups and broths. 5. Stock flowers will perfume your yard. Flowers bloom in double or single forms in colors ranging from cream to lavender, to pink, purple, red and white. To get the most fragrance, plant in masses. It is even more captivating at night. I once asked a man how he liked my stocks. He looked at me for a minute and said, "Some are up and some are down." I then realized he didn't know about this fantastic flower. The plant does attract butterflies and bees.
4. Petunia is one of the showiest annuals in the garden and so simple to grow. Flower colors will astound you: white, red, pink, blue, yellow, bicolors and almost every shade in between. The new petunia in no way bears resemblance to the puny little bell-shaped flowers of yesteryear. Some blooms are broad, funnel-shaped and smooth, while others double their petals to resemble carnations. Even the petal edges come frilled, fluffed, fluted or simply straight. Use petunias in borders, containers, hanging baskets or mass them in tiny spaces for a striking effect. 3. Snapdragon is a favorite for children, who pinch the individual blossoms to make the "dragon mouth" open and close. Your rewards for growing this flower are its striking spikes of fragrant blooms in rich colors: purple, red, lavender and bronze. They are hardy in the teens; however, they prefer the 70s to produce that profusion of blooms. They make great cut flowers. 2. Ornamental kale and cabbage are as showy as you can get when planted early in the fall to generate those elephant-eared leaves. They turned themselves into ornamentals -- a remarkable switch for these down-to-earth vegetables -- and serve as conversation pieces as well. Strip hotels use them extensively. They come either in off-white or deeply tinged pink, red or purple veins, especially toward the centers. They need full sun to bring out the color. 1. Pansies and violas are the "coolest" annuals of the group. They thrive in our winters. The big 2- to 4-inch flowers come dressed in colors of blue, purple, rose, yellow and white, and often are striped or dramatically blotched. Violas lay close to the ground and their colors are in solid blues, reds, purples, whites, reds and yellows. Johnny-jump-ups look like miniature pansies with purple and yellow flowers. Violas are great to plant among your spring flowering bulbs to fill in until they bloom. These are workhorses, but they must have a highly organic soil to grow in. They bloom profusely and if you remove the faded blooms, they will bloom even more. Learning Opportunities -- The following classes will take place in the next week at the Desert Demonstration Gardens, 3701 Alta Drive: at 9 a.m. today, take a tour of the plants now in bloom and learn how to be successful with your plants; at 9 a.m. Saturday, learn how to select plants and how to keep them happy in your landscape; at 1 p.m. Saturday, discover new shrubs to add to your plant palette; and at 7 p.m. Wednesday, join Tim Dunnagan and Ted Hanlon in a discussion of landscape lighting, garden art and distinctive containers. Linn Mills' gardening column runs Thursdays. You may reach him at Linn_Mills@lvrj.com.
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