By Bodie V. Pennisi
University of Georgia
Volume XXVIII
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Spring is perhaps the one season we gardeners are most eager
for. We’ve spent
months poring over catalogs and magazines, exchanging seeds
and cuttings with
fellow gardeners, sharpening tools and promising ourselves
that this spring
our garden will be the neighborhood show-stealer.
Think about effects
When you plan your spring bed, think about the effect you’re
trying to get.
You can do this with color combinations.
- For a soothing look, try white, silver, pink, blue and
purple. - For excitement, plant red, orange and yellow flowers.
- Complementary colors, such as orange and blue or purple
and yellow, form
contrasts and create a lot of interest in the landscape.
Plant height is important to the design, too. Next to the
house, plant a flower
border with the tallest plants in the back, medium plants in
the middle and
short ones in the front. In the front-yard island, put the
tallest plants in
the middle of the bed and surround them by plants of
decreasing heights.
With your design goals in mind, consider getting spring off
to an early splash
with annual bedding plants that grow well in the cool spring
season. Among these
colorful favorites are pansy, viola, lobelia, alyssum,
snapdragon, flowering
cabbage and kale and dusty miller.
Buy carefully, plant and fertilize
Look for locally grown plants. Since they’ve been grown in
Georgia, they’re
better adapted to local climates and haven’t been put through
the rigors of
long travel.
Georgia growers produce excellent plants. And after spending
months carefully
nurturing for their plants, they’re just as eager as you to
show their colorful
displays.
You can buy these plants at a retail greenhouse business,
garden center or
local farmers market. All of them do best in full or partial
sun in well-drained
soils. They prefer moderate fertility, or roughly two
applications of 1 pound
of 10-10-10 per 100 square feet per season. Fertilize them
once at transplant
and once in midseason.
Selections
Pansy and viola. Space these plants on 4- to 8-inch
centers. They do
best when planted in full sun and given plenty of moisture.
Lobelia. This cool-season annual forms brightly
colored mounds, 15 to
24 inches tall. The distinctive flowers have two small upper
lobes and three
lower, spreading, fan-shaped lobes. Depending on the cultivar,
lobelias can
be pure white, pink, red, violet or purple. Space plants on 6-
inch centers.
Like pansy and viola, lobelia prefers cool, moist soils.
Alyssum. Tiny, cross-shaped, scented flowers in
rounded inflorescences
form mounds 15 to 24 inches tall. With colors similar to
lobelia, treat alyssum
similarly in the garden.
Snapdragon. For providing height in the flower bed,
there’s no better
plant than the snapdragon. There’s no scarcity of colors,
including bicolored
flowers. Cultivars range from dwarf (15 inches) to tall (48
inches). Plant them
in full sun on 6- to 8-inch centers. You may need to stake the
plants and deadhead
to prolong flowering.
Ornamental cabbage and kale. These wonderful plants
are prized for their
leaf color. They work well with pansies. The foliage is showy,
with colors from
white through pink or red. Kale’s leaves have frilly edges and
are sometimes
deeply lobed, while cabbage leaves are usually ruffled. Plants
grow to 12 inches
across and 15-20 inches tall. Plant them in full sun on 12- to
15-inch centers.
Dusty miller. A traditional summer annual, you can use
it as a cool-season
annual by planting it between the flowering species. Its
silver-gray, soft foliage
complements a range of colors. And when it’s time to remove
the early-spring
annuals, leave dusty miller in place and plant around it with
summer annuals.
