Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Holland flower bulbs are now available for fall planting. These lovely gems will bloom for you next spring.

• Plant cover crops in the garden where summer plants have finished. Fava beans and crimson clover will grow through the winter and improve your soil for spring planting.

• Wildflower seed broadcasted with the first rains will take root over the winter and burst into flower next spring.

• Divide artichoke plants which have been in the ground for three or four years. Mulch established plants with steer manure.

• Choose shade trees for fall color now and plant them while the soil is still warm.

Cheery Winter Containers

When the days of autumn turn cool and crisp and the leaves begin to show their colors, it is time to replant your containers and flower beds for color and interest in the months ahead.

Planting winter containers garden is possible by using plants that are cold hardy and tolerant of temperatures that can get below freezing.

Pansies and violas love the cold. They bloom continuously through the winter months and even have been seen blooming underneath the snow.

Ornamental kale and cabbage have beautiful purple leaves which intensify with the frost. They make colorful arrangements with their bold, round heads.

Primroses have bright-colored flowers that just keep on coming. In bright red, blue, yellow and pink they are very showy in containers.

Ranunculus and anemone bulbs can be tucked into containers for spring bloom. They come in a wide variety of colors.

Speaking of bulbs, combining bulbs with winter annuals is a great way to get two seasons of bloom out of one planting. Since bulbs are buried deep, plant them first, then plant flowers between the bulbs so they aren’t right on top of them.

The flowers will start growing and fill in by the time the green sprouts of the bulbs begin to show. Then in March, April or May, when the bulbs come into bloom, you will enjoy the beautiful combinations that you have created. After the bulbs have finished blooming, the flowers will hide the foliage of the maturing bulbs.

For pinks and purples, combine lavender pansies with pink and white tulips. Or plant purple and pink tulips in a bed of fragrant, flowering stock, which bloom in pink, white and lavender.

Blue and yellow are always a nice combination. Plant yellow daffodils with dark blue pansies or the lovely ‘Morpho Blue’ pansies, which are pastel blue with yellow markings.

Crocuses bloom early and will look cute coming up through a bed of Johnny-jump-ups. Use your imagination to make other attractive combinations.

It is best to plant your containers in the early fall when the sun will still warm the pots in the daytime. You should place containers in as much sun as possible for the most flowers.

If we have a dry spell, be sure to water the containers, especially if very cold weather is expected. Make sure your containers have drain holes in them and use fresh potting soil for best results.

Let the happy faces of cool-season flowers and bulbs brighten your containers through the winter months.

• Fall is for Planting! Trees, shrubs, lawns, ground covers and bulbs get a jump on spring if you plant them now.

• Keep apples picked up from under the trees to help control the spread of coddling moths which make wormy apples.

• Trim foliage on grape vines to allow more sun to reach the fruit and ripen the grapes.

• Prepare houseplants for return trip indoors. Scout for insects, and thoroughly rinse leaves and container.

• Fertilize lawns now to build up strong, healthy root systems.

Colorful Flowers for Fall

The end of the summer doesn’t have to mean the end of your colorful garden. There are plenty of ways to keep your garden beautiful with fall-blooming flowers. Fall gardening will put you in the spirit of the season, and is a great way to enjoy the beautiful outdoor weather.

The mum, or chrysanthemum, is the first thing that springs to mind when one thinks “fall flowers.” They bring a fresh new look to the fall season and are available in an array of lively colors. They are hardy perennials that come back year after year.

Asters are the other classic fall flower. These 2-3-foot plants pact a lot of punch in the flower bed, blooming with dozens of flowers over a long fall season. They come in various shades of purple and pink and are a fine addition to the perennial border.

Japanese anemone is one of the best of the late summer and early autumn border flowers, with tall upright stems that do not need any staking. In light, airy shade the pink, white or rose-colored semi-double flowers bring a fresh look to the perennial bed. Anemones are sometimes called ‘wind flowers’ and they are indeed graceful swaying in the lightest breeze.

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ is an upright sedum growing 2 feet tall. Its thick grey-green leaves are topped with large domes of bright pink flowers in September which gradually soften to a coppery color through the fall. Drought-tolerant and hardy, this is a fine plant for the fall garden, and it is much visited by honeybees.

Another secret for a beautiful fall garden is the use of ornamental grasses. Around Labor Day, they begin to send up dramatic plumed seedheads. These usually begin as silky tassels, then expand into fluffy flags that last well into winter. They are decorative in the garden even after the grasses themselves have dried and gone dormant.

The tough little pansy is another great choice for a fall garden and will still be blooming after all the other flowers in your garden have died off. It will also be amongst the first to bloom again come spring.

Pansies have been bred in a wide range of colors, from soft pastels of yellow, pink and apricot to bright gold and orange though to purple, violet, and blue. They are a hardy plant, growing well in sunny or partially sunny locations. This versatile flower is perfect whether planted in gardens, window boxes, or pots.

Snapdragons are another staple of the fall garden. From low border snaps to tall “Rockets”, these colorful beauties will brighten the garden or your containers this fall and next spring too. They come in a rainbow of colors adding a lot of cheer all around.

Brighten up your landscape with colorful fall flowers.

• Spring vegetables love cool, moist weather and don’t mind a little frost. Set out lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, onion, spinach and Swiss chard starts now.

• Sweet peas, with their memorable fragrance, can be planted now from nursery starts for wonderful bouquets later this spring.

• Thin raspberry canes to 4-6 inches apart. Cut back remaining canes to 3 feet tall.

• Prune Hydrangeas now by removing old flower heads down to the first new leaves. Don’t prune stems which have no old flowers, and they will bloom first this summer.

• Last chance to spray peach and nectarine trees for peach leaf curl before the buds break open. Use copper sulfate powder for the best results.

Smiling Pansies

The happy faces of pansies are a delight in the garden or in a bud vase on the table. Developed from three wild species, the modern pansies have large flowers, beautifully marked “faces” and a wide range of colors. They add color to the winter and spring garden over a long season.

Pansies are one of the earliest flowering plants, blooming right alongside your spring bulbs. They are low-growing annual flowers that are nice for borders and look very pretty in containers of all kinds. Their heart-shaped, shiny green leaves cover the ground and the flowers rise above them on six-inch stems.

The flowers, up to three inches across, come in almost all colors of the rainbow: violet, purple, blue, pink, red, orange, yellow, white and many exciting bi-colors. Fill an entire bed with pansies for a dramatic spring effect! They also are great in window boxes and containers.

The “old fashioned” pansy has many new varieties to bring early color to your pots and garden beds. Breeding improvements in recent years have produced hybrids that bloom longer, show better weather tolerance, and display a wonderful range of colors and patterns. Seed companies release new varieties yearly.

Pansies have become more popular as gardeners have seen how well they preform through wet, wintery weather. They are unaffected by a covering of snow, and pop right back when the snow melts.

The Delta Series is a group of spring flowering pansies with flowers measuring 2.5″ – 3″ across. They are both very heat tolerant and winter hardy, and offer many pretty bi-colors with faces as well as solid colors. Delta Pure Mix has solid colored flowers in bright yellow, red, blue, white and other colors.

Matrix pansies are vigorous plants that are bred to provide abundant large blooms over a long season and add vibrant color to any landscape setting. They branch quickly and resist stretching so they look their best all through the spring.

Pansies are good companions for spring-flowering bulbs. By choosing colors that compliment the bulbs you can create some very pretty living bouquets. Blooming over a longer season than the bulbs, they will fill in and provide color as the bulbs are finishing their cycle.

When you plant your pansies, water them well but don’t fertilize them for a week or so. They need time to settle in before they can absorb fertilizer. Enjoy some pansies in vases indoors. The more you pick them, the more they bloom.

Springtime isn’t complete without pansies’ smiling faces in the garden.