Blooming from mid-May until autumn’s first frost, these colorful plants can produce a dramatic and striking landscape. Their diverse colors and textures provide the gardener with numerous opportunities, like filling in open spaces in a bed, defining an edge in a garden or jazzing up an area in a planter box or container.
Cedar Run Landscapes has just received its spring order of new annuals. Each year we introduce new and different varieties to our customer’s gardens. This year we are featuring annual vines. Annual vines will add a vertical dimension to the garden, livening up even the smallest of spaces.
The Lime Sweet Potato Vines bright lime green foliage will brighten up any area and its large tubers are edible.
The Moon Vine blossoms, reaching 6 inches in diameter, are quite fragrant and open up at twilight.
Some of the other interesting varieties we are carrying this season:
Magilla Perilla
Reaching up to 24” tall, the brilliant splashes of hot pink, deep plum, and green foliage will add a tropical feel to any garden.
A heat and drought tolerant annual, it has cone like spikes of feathery flowers with silver green foliage.
Often called the Summer Snapdragon, its attractive flowers reaching 1-2 feet high and are covered with snapdragon-like flowers.
Here are a few tips on how to care for your annuals once planted:
• Watering
Keep them evenly moist. This may include daily watering. Make sure there are holes at the bottom of your plantings to allow excess water to escape and remember pots in the sun will need to be watered more than pots in the shade.
• Fertilize
We suggest a combination of a slow timed release fertilizer such as osmocote, which provides 3-4 months of steady feeding, and a liquid fertilizer such as Peters 20-20-20 to be applied every two weeks.
• Deadhead
Remove dead blossoms to keep the plant growing and attractive. If blooms remain, the plant will put its energy into seeds rather than new blooms and foliage.
• Trim Back
Some plants become leggy or become too large as the season progresses. Cut stems just above a leaf using sharp scissors or pruners. This invigorates the plant to produce more foliage.
Here are a few links to learn more about annuals:
http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/a-constantly-changing-border-design-annuals.aspx
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/annuals/
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/annual/
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/annuals/annual_index.html
