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Index : Flowers - Annuals
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- 12. Flowers for Spring and Summer Color - Top
- Want to brighten up your spring and summer landscape? Do it with annual flowers! Nothing can provide as much color, for as long a time, as can flowering annuals. Dream land zinnia, periwinkle (vinca), and blue salvia, are a few of the best for spring planting here in Tucson. They are heat tolerant and will flower throughout the summer. Other good choices include: marigold, portulaca (moss rose), red salvia, celosia (cockscomb), lisianthus, cosmos, and gomphrena (globe amaranth). For shady spots choose red salvia, gomphrena (globe amaranth), geranium, caladium and coleus.
Annual flowers look great in groupings near the front door, along walks, patios, or beside pools for a real splash of color. For the best effect, limit your planting to two or three colors per bed. To many colors together in one spot looses visual impact and looks messy.
Some of the most striking color combinations are mixtures of the primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Combinations of secondary colors: green, violet, and orange are also attention getters. For a more subtle color effect combine flowers in a gradual sequence of colors; red to orange, yellow to green, blue to violet. Best of all, use your own eye to determine which color combinations you find most pleasing.
Now is the best time to plant summer annuals. The danger of frost is past, and temperatures are still mild enough for plants to establish before the real heat of summer sets in.
Select healthy flowers from your local garden store. The younger the plants the better. Avoid buying ones that are tall and leggy, and have obviously outgrown their pots. You can buy annual flowers in different sizes. Plants come in individual four and six inch pots, or six-pack containers. The individual pots are more expensive, but their larger root ball gets them off to a better start once planted. While at the garden center, experiment with color combinations. Hold plants with different flower colors close to one another to decide on the most pleasing combinations.
The key to growing beautiful annual flowers is soil preparation. Choose a planting location that is sunny and well drained. Flowers need a minimum of 6 hours direct sunlight daily to bloom well. Add lots of organic matter, such as well composted manure, desert compost, or peat moss. Spread a 4 inch layer of organic matter over the flower bed and mix it in 12 inches deep. Also mix in to the top 12 inches of soil, ammonium phosphate (16-20-0) or similar analysis fertilizer. Use about 2 pounds of fertilizer for every 100 square feet of flower bed area.
At the time of planting, gently loosen the sides of the root ball with your fingers. This will encourage the roots to grow out into the soil quicker. Set plants at the same depth in the soil they're growing in the pots. Immediately after planting, water the bed thoroughly.
Your watering should wet the soil to a depth of 12 inches. Check the depth of watering by inserting a probe such as a metal rod or shovel blade into the soil after watering. You should be able to push the probe down a foot deep. If not, water for a longer period of time. Continue to water daily. When plants become established, reduce watering to every other day, or as needed. Take care to keep water off plant foliage, especially zinnia which can develop powdery mildew.
Monthly applications of about 2 pounds of ammonium phosphate (16-20-0) or similar analysis fertilizer per 100 square feet of bed area should keep your flowers healthy and full of blossoms. If you have the time, remove faded flowers. On geranium, marigold and zinnia, pinching off faded blooms encourages increased flowering.
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Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on April 09, 2000
- Updated: April 09, 2000
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