Spring gardening is especially welcome this year
Spring 2020 arrived about the same time as school closings and work-from-home orders. With few places to go and more time on our hands, our yards and gardens have become getaways for reducing worry and stress.
There is nothing that says, “Spring is here!” like a burst of color. Soon, we will be seeing bright colorful containers on porches, fence tops and welcoming entrance ways. These bold splashes are the blessing of annual flowers.
Annuals are flowers that will bloom all summer long getting more and more ebullient as the heat and sun progress.
Many people create spots of color to catch the eye. This can be done sedately with a brightly glazed pot and more mundane greenery for year-round attention and color co-ordination. It can also be changed seasonally for something new every few months.
What about fall pansies?
Let your fall pansies roll until the end of March. Then, refresh with petunias, salvia, bacopa, euphorbia, sun patients, begonias and vincas.
All these flowers are sun lovers and will grow into the most amazing conglomerate by the end of summer. A moisture holding additive to the soil in these pots will help maintain manageable watering requirements.
For morning sun only (considered shade) locations you can choose from lobelia, alyssum, impatients, torena, fuchsia, begonias and more. Most vines and trailing plants will take sun or shade. Favorites are potato vine, creeping fig or jenny and English ivy. A garden center will be able to help you create your ‘thriller, filler and spiller’ for the perfect container!
With large pots, many people choose to have a bigger evergreen plant taking up space and balancing the aesthetics. Camelias, rosemary, arborvitae, yews and certain boxwoods and hollies are good for this. Herbs may also be either included in these vessels or have their own spot all to themselves. The ability to cook with freshly plucked herbs that have their own thrill fill and spill motif is a quiet blessing.
Perennials
Perennials are flowers that return every year to greet us from the same location as the last time we saw them. They are beautiful but tend to bloom only for a few months.
Wonderful and reliable, perennials make a lasting garden with something new to enjoy every time you look at it. Early bloomers transition into mid-season. These will be your longest shows here. Some summer stragglers will join the late bloomers for a fall splash.
The spring and fall flowers are some of the most important for all varieties of pollinators. Annuals are very pretty but seldom are useful to our visiting friends.
About the Author
Tina Knapp is the owner and president of Carolina Garden World in Spartanburg, SC. A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Tina found Upstate South Carolina in a job move then found her way to Spartanburg Community College where she completed a degree in horticulture. A frequent presenter at area civic organizations, garden clubs and schools, Tina is sustainability certified and organizes a free Sustainability Day event for the community at Carolina Garden World each year in celebration of Earth Day.
