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Spring Gardening

Yellow Tree Peonies are the latest rage this spring.

Purple and White Iris make a sharp contrast with yellow.

Spring is the time to be thinking about how you want your summer garden to look.  Different plants play different roles in the summer garden.  Using perennials, annuals and flowering bulbs in the summer garden makes the garden more appealing and exciting. Learn more about what you can be doing in May and June to help your summer garden.

Perennials, which come back every year, provide the garden with its foundation.  Plants such as hostas, foxgloves, grasses, liatris, peonies, astilbes, black-eyed Susans, daylilies and Heuchera provide continuity year after year.  These plants give grand performances that can be counted on to peak at different times of the summer.

Some of these plants will come into full glory in the early summer, while others later.  The key is to create areas where perennials that bloom at the same time are teamed up to create fantastic flowery displays. The mid Summer blaze of a mass planting of brilliant yellow lilies, for instance, is made all the more dramatic by adding a purple plant such as clematis.

Annuals, which last for one season only, often bloom non-stop all summer.  Some of the most popular annuals are petunias, zinnias, coleus, geraniums, marigolds, vinca and impatiens.  These flowers provide quick color and season-long performance.  Annuals are generally inexpensive and can be grown from seed or purchased pre-grown in flats or pots.

New hybrids of coleus and petunias have emerged as hot ticket items in garden centers.  Even sweet potato vines are rediscovered.

Last, but not least, we have summer-blooming flower bulbs including lilies, canna, elephant ears, dahlias, begonias, gladioli and caladiums, which are treasured for their exotic looks and ability to "fill in" with splashes of color at critical times in the summer bloom season.  Summer bulbs excel as perennial partners.  Plant these bulbs strategically for dramatic impact and to jazz up established perennial plantings.  Just a few gladiolus bulbs here and there add the upright vertical spires that makes a garden interesting.