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When you want lots of color quickly, flowers to cut by the armful and bloom all summer, you want annuals. For earliest possible bloom, sow seeds indoors, then transplant-or buy started plants in May. But you’ll still get plenty of flowers if you wait till the danger of frost is past and sow the seed of quick-growing varieties where you […]
GAILLARDIA – Blanket flower (Named for M. Gaillard, a French patron of Botany) The bright, sunset colors of the Blanketflower are an asset in any garden. There are annual and perennial Gaillardias, and the various species have been blended to such a degree that it is difficult to say just which are which. Generally, the perennials are yellow and the […]
LINUM Flowering Flax (From linon, flax) There are several annual Flaxes, including Linum grandiflorum (coccineum), the Scarlet Flax, about a foot tall, with wide-open, glossy flowers, and L. usilatissimum, the Flax of commerce which bears blue flowers, and grows 3 feet tall. Where to Plant. The Flax is truly beautiful and forms clumps in the border where the glowing flowers […]
PETUNIA (Named from petun, the Brazilian name for tobacco, to which Petunia is allied) Everyone has some room for Petunias because they are the most profuse flowering of any annual. Few other annuals produce so many of such large flowers. The colors have been improved to such an extent that there are now varieties to please us all. Recently nearly […]
Marigold (Tages was an Etruscan god, but perhaps the name is of another derivation) Even the name-Mary’s Gold-captivates us, and what could be more appropriate? The flowers of these old, old favorites are in some varieties veritably made of flakes of gold. How easy it is to be wealthy with Mary’s Gold. The Aztec (African) Marigold (T. erecla) has large […]
Garden Beds and Borders Annuals are probably most widely used for filling gaps in borders, on the rock garden and elsewhere, for they provide splashes of welcome color in a matter of months. A bed or border. devoted entirely to hardy annuals can make a splendid carpet of color during the summer months, but it does entail considerable work in […]
CLEOME Spiderflower Cleome spinosa (pungens) (gigantea), grows 3 to 6 feet tall and is a most interesting garden subject. The four-petaled flowers are pinkish-lavender and white and are given a peculiar, airy appearance by the long-stemmed stamens and pistils, which protrude from the flowers for several inches. The plants have a peculiar odor. The stems are more crowded with flowers […]
LOBELIA (Named for M. L’Obel, botanist and physician of King James I) Clear blues are found among the annual Lobelias. The varieties of the Edging Lobelia, Lobelia erinus, the common species, are of two sorts-those which produce compact plants four inches tall, and trailing forms, which hang down for two or three feet over the sides of a pot. The […]
PHACELIA (Named from the Greek for cluster; refers to clustering of flowers) The best known sort is Phacelia campanularia, the Harebell Phacelia, which bears Gentian-blue, bell-shaped flowers with contrasting white stamens on one-sided curved racemes. The plants grow 9 inches tall and are somewhat hairy. They remain in bloom for a long time, the flowers being produced in one-sided curving […]
Each year the National Garden Bureau (ngb.org/year-of) names plants of the year, with the annual flower (lives only one year) for 2019 being snapdragon. This upright flower is easy to grow, has multiple garden uses, and comes in a multitude of colors. Although snapdragons are winter-hardy in warmer climates (USDA zones 7 to 10, such as the mid-Atlantic states and […]