Today's garden advice is for the new gardener whose dream is having a garden that is always full of flowers, always in full bloom. All flower gardens have their peaks and valleys. While no flower garden can maintain its peak bloom, there is no reason why there can't be something in bloom from early spring through late autumn. Knowledge of what blooms when and for how long will provide the new gardener with the ammunition required for the all-season bloom. Many garden centers, which can help with you with their own garden advice, are now selling annuals that are capable of flowering earlier than natural and will continue to bloom until the first frost. Perennials bloom for shorter periods of time, making them harder to work with.
When planning a full bloom garden one should approach the project by imagining your garden as a storage rental business.
As one tenant moves out another needs to take its place. And so it must be with your garden by creating a succession of blossoms by using a variety of plants.My garden advice to the novice gardener is that a garden has its shining stars that never fail to amaze you with their gaudy blooms and colors. Building your garden around these stars is no different than building a sports team around its stars. Some spring stars are as follows: tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, crocus, and alliums. Daffodil blends will provide you with a color-coordinated mixture of varieties that will bloom at different times. They are also a deer resistant plant. Giant Dutch crocus will bloom weeks before other blooms set sail. To add variety to your early spring blooms plant Giant Glory of the Snow. They are 6-7 inches high with sky blue blossoms with white centers.
They are easy to grow and will multiply. Mulching and fertilizing can be found on our site.To bridge the gap between the spring and summer stars I recommend iris, (that will bloom through the summer), the alliums, which are very fragrant flowers and in rock gardens may bloom all through the summer. I personally recommend a Mountain Bells mixture that will bloom in late spring and again in the summer. They have a sweet fragrance and multiply freely year after year with hundreds of blooms. More garden advice would be to plant a lily mixture that will bloom through to mid summer.
Late summer bloomers would be begonias, which will bloom to the first frost. A gladiola mix will bloom through late summer. A favorite of mine that pop up in the late summer is the hardy cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium). The mature plants have beautiful rose-pink butterfly blooms that have many delicate 1" blooms.
I know you will enjoy many hours visiting your star-studded all-season garden by following this garden advice.