Suggestions for next years annuals
stir_fryi SE Mich
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I have a new bed in my backyard that gets early morning sun and late afternoon sun. I didn't think this was enough sun for petunias so I planted NG Impatiens. They were expensive and, even though they bloom nicely all the time -- they don't seem to spread or get taller.
I am looking for suggestions for next year -- my daughter will be graduating so I'd like this bed to look nice by the end of June for her grad party. One other thing -- getting the hose that far out in the yard is challenging and I am only good for watering once or twice a week. They do get hit with the underground sprinklers.
Wondering if Sunpatiens are a better choice? Was thinking Zinnia but maybe not enough sun (not 6-8 hours). Would love to plant Vista Bubblegum but that require to much watering!
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kitasei
6 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Will annuals that don´t flower one year, flower the next??
Comments (3)Lynn - thanks for trying to help with the godetia problem - I´m pretty sure that it IS that flower because I scattered the seeds in that area and I can´t think what else they could be. Sweet of you to look it up on the internet. I just tried that again myself and saw one site that said that it often prefers a cooler climate to ours. Sultry - I am amazed by what you say! Just goes to show that you shouldn´t give up hope too early... I´ll sow a few seeds among them just in case and hang on in case it does decide to flower. Thanks so much for your help. Best wishes ALmeria...See MoreIf an annual doesn´t flower one year, might it flower the next?
Comments (8)Godetia (syn. Clarkia) is indeed an annual, but I too would agree to leave it alone to see what happens this season. I agree with Al that plants do not perform according our calendar. While the definition of an annual is a plant that completes its life cycle during a single growing season, failure to bloom and set seed in that growing season can very well extend the life of the plant into a second season, as it has not yet completed its intent - to bloom and produce seed and reproduce itself. FWIW, I can list a number of "true" annuals (as opposed to tender perennials or biennials) that can survive longer than a single season. It will depend a lot on environmental influences, but plants tend to be extremely adaptable and the genetic predetermination to reproduce can be very flexible. Believe it or not, deadheading to remove spent flowers and prevent the plant from setting viable seed can go a long way in increasing the life expectancy of a single season plant....See Moreshade suggestions for next year
Comments (7)Taterbug, I have exactly the same conditions in several of my beds. I have turks cap in a coouple of them and it does fine and blooms every year. The hummers, flutterbyes and bees love it. The flowers of course are rather small, but they bloom consistently all summer and the plant is lush and full. I also have hydrangeas which normally prefer dappled sun all day, but they seem to do just fine in shade with just a few hours of really hot direct sun in the evenings. I have three oak-leaf hydrangeas that have the white flower clusters, one on the north side of the house that gets full sun for a few hours in the middle of the day. It's about 6' x 6' and full of blooms. The one on the east side is smaller, but also blooms consistently and gets almost no direct sun. The third one is in a flower bed that only gets late afternoon sun and it's as healthy and big and blooming as the other two. If your flower beds are contained and divided from your lawn areas you might have good luck with obedient plant. In full sun it might bloom earlier in the summer, in partial light it will still bloom, but a little later. It can become a bit invasive so you would want to keep it contained. It's a beautiful flower though and will withstand almost any type of sun, heat, draught, or soil and come back looking great. It has a beautiful flower stalk with lavender blooms. Lastly, if you like attractive foliage in your mostly shady areas try hostas. They fill in beautifully and can provide a nice looking low growing edge to your shady beds. I have mostly shade and have dozens of hostas. Some people cut off the bloom spikes on their hostas because they just like the leaves. I let them bloom because they do set viable seeds and you can grow more hostas of your own. Cool, huh? I have anchored one of my shady beds with bloodgood Japanese maples and little round pond. The red foliage is pretty and if there's nothing blooming I still have pretty red color. I keep them pruned just a bit for pleasing shape and they really look sweet. Lastly, when you purchase plants if you get them from a nursery, you may be able to get advice from the sales personnel about whether you are getting native or perinnial species. Annuals may look more bling, but won't withstand as much stress. Cheryl...See MoreSuggestions for Heart Tomato next year
Comments (4)Hi Lee, I think that in our climate, most oxheart tomato varieties in general do deserve their reputation for being poor performers, but I grew a lot of oxheart varieties anyway this year since we were having so much rain. I figured that since they had not done well in years where we warmed up early in winter and had relatively hot and dry winter weather, then maybe they'd do better in a wet year. I have tried almost every oxheart variety offered by the seed companies I patronize, and have been underwhelmed by their performance in general, and that dates back to the late 1990s through through around 2008 or so when I mostly gave up on oxhearts. For me, Kosovo produced maybe 3 tomatoes in the 3rd year I grew it, and none in the first two years. Anna Russian, when I tried it, was only slightly better. After trying all kinds of oxhearts for about 6-8 years, I gave up. Some of the other ones that I remember that did not do well here include Reif Red Heart, Rostova/Sunset's Red Horizon, Russian 117, Livingston's Oxheart, Orange Russian 117, Wes, Oxheart, Ukrainian Heart and German Red Strawberry. After about 200-09, I pretty much stopped wasting space on oxhearts. Having said that, my soil is a lot better now than it was when I was trying a lot of oxhearts, and I have floating row cover I can use to cover up plants and get them off to an earlier start in spring. So, the last 3 or 4 years, I've slowly been adding back a few paste hearts. Three that have produced well for several years here are Charol Chyko's Big Paste, Carol Chyko's Big Paste Black and Brad's Black Heat. The Chyko's both are not paste tomatoes, but are juicy oxhearts that are great for fresh eating. A year or two after adding those, I grew Cherokee Purple Heart, which produced early and produced big tasty oxhearts through about mid-summer. Then I grew Dolly Parton, and the fruit I got bore no resemblance to any part of the real Dolly Parton's anatomy, but instead gave me small red tomatoes. I am not sure if I purchased crossed seed or what, but they were small globes and not large hearts. There were, however, lots of them and they produced all summer long. Once we got really hot, that plant became much less productive, but not until it was really, really hot and dry so I think it might stay very productive in a milder summer. This year I decided to grow several more oxhearts. These are the oxhearts I grew this year: German Red Strawberry, Yellow Oxheart, Brad's Black Heart, Joe's Pink Oxheart, Cherokee Purple Heart, Dwarf Purple Heart, Kim's Civil War Oxheart, Yellow Oxheart, and Anna Banana Russian. Bear in mind that rain had started falling here back midway through June of 2014 and never really stopped, so all the oxhearts listed above were growing in weather that was perfect for them---a long, mild, rainy spring, followed by a lot of rain in early summer. They produced accordingly----we got tons and tons of oxhearts this year. It was sort of amazing. The earliest oxhearts we harvested were from Kim's Civil War Oxheart, which produced big pink fruit early in the season, and smaller ones as the summer went on. It also was a pretty heavy producer. All the oxhearts produced well this year except for Anna Banana Russian, which went into the ground late and might have been in too much shade. Joe's Pink was only slightly behind Kim's Civil War, and it produced huge pink oxhearts and it produced them all summer long. I loved Joe's Pink. German Red Strawberry was slower to bloom and set fruit, but it continued setting fruit well into June, and it produced moderately well. Dwarf Purple Heart, from The Dwarf Project, produced heavily for such a small plant. Yellow Oxheart was late and not a heavy producer, but the fruit had great flavor. It was thrilling to have so many oxhearts this year, and I have no idea how much credit the weather gets for that. I'll just have to grow them all again next year to see if I get the same results in a year with different weather. Hope this helps. Now that I've had such a good yield from several varieties of oxhearts, I feel like I'll probably add a couple of new ones every year in the endless search to find oxhearts that perform well in the heat. Joe's Pink Oxheart, by the way, is from the Ozarks, so I suspect it likely will perform here even in hotter, drier weather than we had this year since it is from our general region. When we were in the midst of the excessive rainfall in May and June (roughly 38-39" for us in those two months, if my memory is correct), some of the oxhearts had flavor that was somewhat watered down (as did all the tomato varieties in my garden) but as the rain stopped and fruit matured in hotter, drier conditions, their flavor got better and better. I also noticed that many of the oxhearts did not suffer from concentric or longitudinal cracking nearly as much as beefsteak and slicers did during the heavy rainfall. That was a plus for the oxheart varieties as well. Dawn...See Morerhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
6 years agoPatti Chicago Zone 5b/6a
6 years ago
Paul MI
6 years agodocmom_gw
6 years agoUser
6 years agolorna5243
6 years agothis is really beautiful look like baby roses I also tried it this year in the shade and it does great it a double impatiens not sure of other colors I have orange but it did not do well at all I will bring this one in the house for the winter under the light when I get little stems I will put them in water and will have it for next year
Paul MI
6 years agostir_fryi SE Mich
6 years agoPatti Chicago Zone 5b/6a
6 years ago
bella rosa
6 years agoIf you're going to try begonias, I would suggest you try the "dragon wing" begonias. I plant these every year in my window box and they are amazing. I get the red ones, but they also come in pink. Here's a few pics from this year:
mnwsgal
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agobella rosa
6 years ago
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