I’m not quite sure I’ve been living in the Southeast this summer…plentiful rain and decent temperatures – (Though it looks like the heat is finally returning.) this has been Alabama in August?!
But, even with a manageable summer, annuals planted back in April can still be looking worse for wear, no matter how well you tend your garden and containers. Potted plantings especially can get just plain root bound, and may need rejuvenating by late summer when school starts back up.
Pumpkin season is right around the corner…
And, before you know it, pumpkins and gourds will be on display all over town – and they look beautiful with all the late summer plants you can begin putting in now and in the coming weeks!
But what to do? If you’ve been cutting back your annuals they may be just fine. If they are, that’s great. Keep tending them until pansy season, which generally begins when temperatures really begin to cool down and fall is definitely in the air – usually sometime in October.
But, if your garden and beds are struggling…think about where you’d like to see marigolds, ornamental peppers, late season salvias, and, further down the road, lettuce, asters and cool season herbs – we’ll have transplants of parsley, thyme (Look for the lemon variegated thyme which looks beautiful with green or red lettuce and marigolds.) dill and cilantro too.
Just a few marigolds go a long way in planters or beds – each plant gets quite large – and they only need periodic dead heading to keep blooms coming.
What about mums, you ask? Well, we’ll have mums as well, and they are beautiful too. You do need to know though, as soon as all their buds open, there won’t be more flowers. You can enjoy them until they’re done blooming, but, no matter how many flowers you pinch off, they won’t make more! But for a weekend football party or get together, they can’t be beat as a traditional fall flower on a table or by your front door.
Soon everything will be available to create this planting arrangement…
September is right around the corner, and that is the month all of these plants become more readily available. If you begin planning now, you can have a glorious fall planters and garden beds that are the envy of your neighborhood!
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The last planting is shown to serve as an example of how you can definitely have color in the shade using foliage in addition to flowers…the ‘Garden White’ caladium in contrast with the golden carex and sunpatien really catches the eye! The planter at the top of this post is also one for shade, and, once again, the foliage is the star.
Butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, is the pretty orange flower, shown in the picture on the right in my very hot and sunny front border. It’s right at home with other butterfly attractors including salvias, trailing white lantana, purple and red gomphrena, zinnias, mexican heather, other 
This ‘Siloam Double Classic’ daylily’s first bloom in my garden marks the beginning of summer for me. Blooming right around Memorial Day, it is also a reliable rebloomer and the last to bloom at the end of summer – August 22nd last year, to be exact!
Once the bloom period ends, cut the old bloomscapes completely to the ground, tidying the plant. If the leaves begin to look tattered at all, don’t hesitate to take the entire plant and cut all the foliage back by half. Your daylilies will reward you with fresh foliage the rest of the season, and, if they’re rebloomers, you’ll have another round of flowers!
And there are such pretty things to play with! This time of year, with spring in the air but not quite yet here – this is the time of hydrangeas, calla lilies and sweet alyssum – the soft colors of Easter mingling and overlapping with the brightness of other, more exuberant blooms of gerbera daisies, ranunculus and the first of the geraniums. So much to work with! So we begin to gather flowers and foliage and perhaps a few herbs to add their scent, color and texture to the mix.
This post isn’t going to be about design rules, because quite frankly, we sometimes break them. (Maybe we’re just rebels at heart!) No, this is about what feels and looks right to you. And, perhaps it’s more about not being afraid of making a “mistake” – with arrangements, container plantings or your own garden.
