Lake Austin Spa Resort (Texas)
Summers are hot and can be a challenge to any gardener. Flowers with bold, bright colors can take the heat and provide stunning floral arrangements.
I especially love zinnias. My mother had a bed of zinnias at the front door for many years and I was amazed at the beautiful colors of the flowers as tall as I was that came from a little packet of seeds! If you have avoided them because of problems with mildew in the past, try some of the new varieties. Look for plants at your local nursery center in the “Dreamland” and “Short Stuff” varieties. These plants bloom profusely and stay ten to twelve inches tall and are very disease resistant. My favorite variety that is great for cutting and easily grown from seeds is “Blue Point”, a dahlia like flower that has long stems great for flower arranging and comes in rich jewel tones. They grow 3 to 3 ½ feet tall.
I grow lots of globe amaranth each year. The deer don’t like them, they have great flowers for cutting and they provide colorful blooms for cutting and for use in craft projects. Colors include red, orange, apricot, white, magenta, rose and lavender shades and bi-colors. They grow 1 ½ to 2 feet tall and look stunning until winter. Cut them and tie them in bunches with a rubber band and hang them in a cool, well ventilated place out of sunlight. The colors remain vibrant for years. New dwarf varieties that stay 10 to 12 inches tall include “Gnome” and “Buddy”.
Cosmos is another great flower to plant from seed and enjoy the bright flowers all summer long. Purity white, Candy Stripe with white and magenta flowers and the tubular petals of Seashell are a few of my favorites. They will self-seed freely!
Sunflowers are a must have for the summer garden. The twelve foot monster flowers are great for growing sunflower seeds, but are difficult to incorporate in most smaller gardens. New varieties made for cutting include the dwarf forms “Big Smile” with 5 inch wide flowers on sturdy 12 to 18 inch tall plants! I use them as a backdrop for lower growing annuals. “Music Box” is another dwarf with four inch flowers growing on bushy thirty inch tall plants. You get lots of blooms from each plant. “Cinnamon Sun” has velvety red flowers on five foot tall plants.
Cleome is an old fashioned flower that has found new fans. White, pink and lavender unusual flowers bloom abundantly on three to four foot shrubs. They are often called spider flowers because the dangling seed pods are look like spider legs.They grow easily from seeds or plants and perform well in heat or drought. They have small thorns but are stunning cut flowers and grow well in containers.
Look for seeds or plants for these flowers at your local nursery or garden center or order them from the following companies:
The Cook’s Garden
P.O. Box 535
Londonderry, Vermont 05148
1-800-457-9703
Shepherd’s Garden Seeds
30 Irene Street
Torrington, Connecticut 06790-6658
860-482-3638
http://www.shepherdseeds.com/
Pinetree Garden Seeds
Box 300
New Gloucester, ME 04260
207-926-3400
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