Fragrant Iris
Fragrant Iris
Advice For Growing A Full Bloom Garden
I would like to share some garden advice for the new gardener whose dream is having a garden that is always full of flowers, always in full bloom. All flower gardens have their ups and downs. While no flower garden can maintain its peak bloom, there is no reason why there should not be plants in bloom from early spring through late autumn. Knowledge of what blooms when and for how long will provide the new gardener with the ammunition required for the all-season bloom. You can find many garden centers and nurseries with offer their own garden advice, and are now selling annuals that are capable of flowering earlier than natural and will continue to bloom until the first frost. Perennials bloom for 3-6 weeks, making them harder to work with, but very fun to plan where and when they will shine in your garden.
When I begin my planning stage I imagine my full bloom garden as a storage rental business. As one tenant moves out another needs to take its place. And so it must be with your garden by creating a succession of blossoms by using a variety of plants. All you novice gardeners out there need to know that every well planned garden has its shining stars that always amazes you with their flashy blooms and colors. Building your garden around these stars is no different than building a sports team around its stars.
Some spring stars are as follows: tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, crocus, and alliums. Daffodil blends will provide you with a color-coordinated mixture of varieties that will bloom at different times. They are also a deer resistant plant. Giant Dutch crocus will bloom weeks before other blooms set sail. To add variety to your early spring blooms plant Giant Glory of the Snow. They are 6-7 inches high with sky blue blossoms with white centers. They are easy to grow and will multiply.
To bridge the gap between the spring and summer stars I recommend iris, (that will bloom through the summer), the alliums, which are very fragrant flowers and in rock gardens may bloom all through the summer. I personally recommend a Mountain Bells mixture that will bloom in late spring and again in the summer. They have a sweet fragrance and multiply freely year after year with hundreds of blooms. More garden advice would be to plant a lily mixture that will bloom through to mid summer.
Some late summer bloomers would be begonias, which will bloom to the first frost. A gladiola mix will bloom through late summer. A favorite of mine that pop up in the late summer is the hardy cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium). The mature plants have beautiful rose-pink butterfly blooms that have many delicate 1” blooms.
If you follow this garden advice you will enjoy your star-studded all-season garden.
About the Author
Nancy Merkle is an long time amateur gardener from the Chicago area. She enjoys sharing some of her tips she has accumulated through the years with anyone that would like to visit her
website.
for all the people that think they’re genious’ in terms of gardening….here is a quiz?
match the description with the plant
a.This flowering plant can be found almost eberywhere in the eastern U.S. People plant it in their yards for colorful landscaping. I also grows wild in many areas. Its flowers may be any shade of pnk, red, white, yellow, or purple. All parts of this plant are poisonous.
b. This plant can be seen growing wild along many roads in the South. Many people plant it in their yards because of its beautiful, vivid yellow flowers. However, all parts of the plant contain poison similar to strychnine.
c. This plant flowers in the early spring. The flowers are fragrant yellow or white blossoms. Some varieties can be grown indoors in the winter. However, the bulbs of the plant are poisonous.
FLOWERS/OPTIONS. put the letter or the description in the space of the name of thte flower it matches.
azalea____
iris_____
yellow gelsemium______
good luck! if you get all of them right i will send you an email telling you so
azalea–a.
iris–c
yellow gelsemium–b.
I want to see a picture of the yellow gelsemium! Is it one of those wildflowers blooming right now?
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