Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Fertilize container plants every 10 to 14 days with a liquid fertilizer. Pinch off faded blossoms and they will keep blooming all summer for you.

• There’s still time to plant summer vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers and corn will bear for you if you plant them now.

• It’s time to set out Brussels sprouts for fall harvest.

• Attract birds to your garden with a concrete bird bath. They come in many attractive styles and make good gifts.

• Earwigs are out and about and hungry. Control them with the new “Sluggo Plus”, which has the natural, bacteria-based spinosad added to the original iron phosphate formula.

Gold in the Garden

To brighten up your flower beds and containers this summer, look to Marigolds, Coreopsis, yarrow and Gazanias to add some splashes of gold to your garden.

Coreopsis are a favorite flower with many gardeners because of their bright, sunny colors and long blooming season. Their drifts of daisy-like flowers light up the garden with bright splashes of gold, rust and soft yellow.

Most coreopsis are perennials with long blooming seasons. Their golden yellow daisy flowers rise on strong stems above their rich green foliage. The variety ‘Early Sunrise’ has double, 2-inch flowers on 2-foot tall plants. They bloom the first year from early summer to fall, attracting butterflies and birds to your garden. Bright and cheery, they make great cut flowers.

Threadleaf, coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’ has dainty, finely-cut foliage and a spreading habit. It is a strong perennial, living for many years with minimal care. It’s pale yellow flowers combine nicely with blue and purple flowers, like Echinacea or Campanula, in the garden or with warm colors. It can also be used along garden walls where it will tumble over the edge. It is the most drought tolerant of the family.

Coreopsis ‘Baby Sun’ is excellent in the flower border, making a thick covering about 16 inches high. The fringed yellow flowers have a striking red eye, and they bloom over a long season, living for many years with little care.

The dwarf coreopsis, ‘Nana’, makes a nice, long-blooming ground cover. It has single, golden yellow flowers and forms a carpet of brilliant yellow from spring through summer. It prefers morning sun and makes an excellent addition to the rock garden.

Marigolds are sunny annuals with yellow, orange or red flowers. There four types of marigolds: French marigolds, triploids hybrids, and single-flowered types with dainty flowers, and African marigolds with large, fluffy flowers. No annual is more cheerful or easier to grow than marigolds. You can use marigolds as border or edging accents or grow entire beds of them. Marigolds also make good potted plants and cut flowers. Plant them in full sun or partial shade.

There are many different types of yarrow, but two are outstanding for their big, yellow flowers. ‘Coronation Gold’ is a hardy perennial that sends up flower stalks to 4 feet tall with golden yellow flower heads. ‘Moonshine’ is a smaller variety, growing to 2 feet tall with buttery yellow flowers. All kinds attract butterflies and insect pollinators.

Gazanias are bright daisy flowers that bloom all summer. They grow as ground covers and flowers come in many colors, but yellows and oranges are predominant. Use them for a bright spot of color or as a ground covering, though they seldom live through the winter in our climate.

Plant some gold in your garden to brighten summer days.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012 at 10:19 am and is filed under Garden Article, Willits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.