Always Growing

“108”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana

108. That’s the number of bedding plants that I planted today.

My sister and I went on what we call our “garden field trip.” This is when we travel away from where we live to buy plants. About forty to fifty miles away are nurseries that seem to carry different plants than are available around home. Some of these nurseries are much bigger than the ones here, so there is more variety in plants.

One of the first plants I picked out is a sansanqua camellia, Cotton Candy. It is a lovely pink and will fit in nicely in the “pink” garden. I like the sansanquas because they start blooming in the fall and into early winter when there often can be little blooming in the garden.

We visited two nurseries in the Baton Rouge areas, and both had bedding plants in six packs. Last year, I could only find two inch pots of the bedding plants, and since I would need so many, it was cost prohibitive to plant as I usually would. I don’t know if it is the economy or what, but this Saturday, the six packs were plentiful. Because of our fairly mild winters, we plant cool season annuals in the fall, and since our ground never freezes, the roots continue to develop. Which means that come spring time, we have good size plants that bloom profusely. If you wait until February or so to plant, you do need the four inch pots because planting that late means you need the bigger plants a four inch pot provides. Anyway, I am just glad they brought back the six packs as this means I was able to plant several areas that I didn’t last year, and then those areas of the garden will be looking extra nice come spring.

For bright, cheery flowers, you just can’t beat the pansy family. The last few years, I have been planting only violas because they seem to give more color. Those hundreds of blooms make up for the small size of the flower. I really like the panolas the best, but I haven’t found them as readily as violas or pansies. There were some available this Saturday, but they were mixed colors, and I like to plant only one color in an area so I went with the violas. I always put yellow flowers in the circle garden because I love the way their bright color cheers up those gray winter days.

The entry garden’s color scheme is red and purple. Usually, I plant dark red and dark purple petunias in the fall. Last year, I only had the dark purple because I couldn’t find the dark red ones I like. This year, same problem. No dark reds. So, I have decided to go with white petunias. Maybe they will look like snow this winter. I think I will like the white better come springtime. I have missed having lighter colors when spring arrives even though the red and purple make a great combination.

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Finally, comes the snapdragons. I’ve learned from my sister to always choose fall bedding plants with spring in mind. Since these plants will really shine then, it is better to plant spring colors, even though it is fall with winter approaching. With that in mind, I choose to purchase light pink snapdragons. They are a lovely color and will look great in the “pink” garden.

I finished planting as darkness was falling, so there are no photos of how these look in the garden. I will try and get some pictures tomorrow to post. Even though the plants are small, they still look good and bring that promise of springtime color.