Gone Gardenin’ — Flowery hits and misses

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/10/2010 (5482 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last week, I shared my experiences in my 2010 vegetable garden. This week, I will tell you about the successes and disappointments I faced growing flowers. Sometimes sharing experiences — positive or negative — can be useful so that other gardeners can improve their chances of success when trying the same methods or growing the same plants.

Let’s start on a positive note. I grew a new kind of zinnia called ‘Red Queen Lime,’ which was absolutely stunning. Its 6-8 cm blooms were a dark dusty pink with lime green centres and were the perfect size to use in bouquets and flower arrangements.

I had them planted along the edge of the vegetable garden where there is a fair bit of shade, and next year I will locate them in full sun, where I am sure they will be much more prolific. I hope the seed is available locally next year as I had to order it from the U.S. last spring.

I grew a lot of cannas this year. They were stunning, and I will continue to start them early in pots to give them a head start as all of them had finished blooming before fall frosts occurred. I still am a strong advocate of getting things off to an early start in our short zone two growing season.

I started my calla lilies, my Peruvian daffodils and even planted my acidanthera bulbs in pots early in the spring to give them a head start. Although I left the callas and Peruvian daffodils in their pots, I planted the acidanthera in the ground where they bloomed profusely, and for a change finished flowering before frost threatened.

My yellow argyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ were stunning again this year. I buy individually potted, good sized plants from our local garden centre and plant them to act as gate posts on either side of the path leading into the vegetable garden.

The plants were just starting to bloom when I put them out and they continued to put on a fine display all summer and well into the fall. These plants are related to chrysanthemums and are quite tolerant of early light fall frosts.

I also used the pretty single yellow blooms as cut flowers and in arrangements this year, something that I had never done before, and found that they are long lasting after being cut. This would be one plant that I would recommend for anyone with very limited planting space and only room for a couple of flowering plants because they bloom non-stop all season and are not bothered by insects or disease — very easy care plants.

I tried a second variety of argyranthemum, a shorter one called ‘Cherry Red,’ and I was disappointed with its performance. It was in bloom when I bought it, but it flagged in mid-summer and never really came back into full bloom.

My gladioli were wonderful this year — one crop that loved all the rain. I bought some "smoky" corms in the spring and I was thrilled with the lovely, unusually coloured spikes these corms produced.

I always grow some amaranthus and I did again this year. They are such interesting plants and provide great interest to the late summer garden when many other plants have bloomed themselves out.

I grew quite a number of ‘Love-Lies-Bleeding,’ an amaranthus with pendulous rope-like blooms. I positioned one at the entrance to the front garden and it was an outstanding focal point in that part of the garden all summer.

Two things that I had mentioned trying in earlier columns: the passion flower that I grew from seed grew very quickly and is already over a metre in length, so I tied it up to a small trellis and moved it indoors for the winter; and the containers in which I used "Sea Soil" did remarkably well, and this is a product that I will continue to use. (It was recommended by Gwen Beam of the Brandon Garden Club when she gave a talk to our Horticultural Society this spring.)

I again attempted to grow potato vines, both the lime and the purple-leafed varieties, after a not-so-successful attempt a number of years ago. I was again disappointed.

I grew them in mixed containers, but they were unimpressive; and worse, they seemed to constantly have green worms on them that ate innumerable holes in the leaves, making the plants even less attractive. There are trailing plants for containers that perform better for me — ‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbia, lobelia, and creeping Jenny to name three — so I will not grow potato vines another year.

As many of my readers know, I love coleus. The coleus in my outdoor garden did not do well — I did not follow my own advice and put them out too early in the spring; they never really recovered from the cold, wet weather they had to endure.

It is interesting how I can see plants such as these doing marvelously well in some one else’s garden yet have no luck growing them myself; this just goes to show that each garden is different and each gardener seems to have a knack for growing certain plants. It is always interesting, though, to see if we can emulate others’ successes in our own gardens.

Then, of course, there was our yard renovation, my hibiscus standard, my attempt to over winter oriental lilies and … all fodder for future columns! The 2010 gardening season was indeed a very busy, but interesting one.

» Albert Parsons is a consultant for garden design and landscaping who lives in Minnedosa.