Every year, we try a few annuals in the garden. Some plants work out well...others not so much.
I think the hardiness award this year has to go to the snapdragons. We started our Antirrhinum majus 'Twinny Peach' from seed indoors last March, and it had buds before we even got it in the ground. They started blooming in early May, and they're still blooming. A week before Thanksgiving!! We've had several frosts, but the snapdragons seem unperturbed. I'm beginning to think these guys will be blooming under the snow! I'm definitely going to grow these again, although I think I should plant them more densely than I did; one of my neighbors put hers maybe four inches apart, and they formed an absolute blanket of color.
I think the hardiness award this year has to go to the snapdragons. We started our Antirrhinum majus 'Twinny Peach' from seed indoors last March, and it had buds before we even got it in the ground. They started blooming in early May, and they're still blooming. A week before Thanksgiving!! We've had several frosts, but the snapdragons seem unperturbed. I'm beginning to think these guys will be blooming under the snow! I'm definitely going to grow these again, although I think I should plant them more densely than I did; one of my neighbors put hers maybe four inches apart, and they formed an absolute blanket of color.
I even got some variation in color over the course of the year. They started out a fairly pale yellow, and as the season progressed, they showed richer peach tones with pinkish highlights.
I also have to give very high marks to my "volunteer" cleome. A couple years ago, we planted some all-white Cleome hasslerana in front of our bedroom window, and I don't think we got any results from it (which is rather rare, since cleome is normally easy to grow). So I wrote it off, assuming that the spot I put them in just wasn't a happy place for them. Then this year, out of a blue, a lone plant popped. I'm not sure if it was a stray seed from my original planting (it bloomed the traditional pink and white, not pure white), or if a passing bird dropped it, but however it got there, it grew like crazy. I don't really like touching cleome because they're kind of sticky, but what a delight it was to open the bedroom shade every morning and see these perky flowers! I jiggled the seed pods all over the area in hopes that more will sprout next year, and I saved a few in an envelope to start indoors, just in case.
I also have to give very high marks to my "volunteer" cleome. A couple years ago, we planted some all-white Cleome hasslerana in front of our bedroom window, and I don't think we got any results from it (which is rather rare, since cleome is normally easy to grow). So I wrote it off, assuming that the spot I put them in just wasn't a happy place for them. Then this year, out of a blue, a lone plant popped. I'm not sure if it was a stray seed from my original planting (it bloomed the traditional pink and white, not pure white), or if a passing bird dropped it, but however it got there, it grew like crazy. I don't really like touching cleome because they're kind of sticky, but what a delight it was to open the bedroom shade every morning and see these perky flowers! I jiggled the seed pods all over the area in hopes that more will sprout next year, and I saved a few in an envelope to start indoors, just in case.
I'm not a huge fan of petunias, but I have to admit that the Petunia 'Blanket Rose' that I planted around the mailbox bloomed nicely this year. We picked these up from a nursery in mid-June. The four plants spread to almost completely fill about ten square feet, and they ignored the sun and drought, flowering profusely until earlier this month.
Having disparaged my Zinnia 'Zahara Starlight Rose' in a previous post, I do want to mention that, toward the end of the season, the flowers did finally start looking like they were supposed to. And whether or not they had rose-colored stars upon thars (as Dr. Seuss would say), they really were floriferous plants, growing to exactly the size I wanted, and blooming non-stop for five months. I might end up giving these guys an opportunity for a repeat performance next year.
A less successful experiment was the nasturtiums. I've successfully grown them at other homes in Ohio, and when I direct-seeded my Tropaeolum majus 'Vanilla Berry', I was very pleased with how quickly they germinated and sent up clusters of leaves. And that was it. I think I can count on one hand the number of flowers I got. They're not going to get a second audition.
The biggest disappointment, though, had to be the melampodium. I've grown Melampodium paludosum 'Melanie' before, with fabulous results. But here are pictures of this year's flowers.
No, your browser is not malfunctioning. I got zip, nada, goose egg. The plants didn't even make it for a week. Almost as soon as they hit the ground, they shriveled up and were seen no more.
I might have to assume some of the responsibility for that. I put them under a couple small maple trees, and the competition for water might have been too much for them. Maybe I'll try growing melampodium around the mail box instead of petunias next year, although if they don't like drought, they're not going to like that spot.
On a complete non-sequitur—for those of you who are kind enough to follow this blog, I apologize for not posting more frequently. I'm currently working on a book (not about gardening, alas), and it's consuming almost all of my free time. I'll still try to write something here at least once a month, but it might be a while until I'm back to posting more regularly. Thanks again for reading!
No, your browser is not malfunctioning. I got zip, nada, goose egg. The plants didn't even make it for a week. Almost as soon as they hit the ground, they shriveled up and were seen no more.
I might have to assume some of the responsibility for that. I put them under a couple small maple trees, and the competition for water might have been too much for them. Maybe I'll try growing melampodium around the mail box instead of petunias next year, although if they don't like drought, they're not going to like that spot.
On a complete non-sequitur—for those of you who are kind enough to follow this blog, I apologize for not posting more frequently. I'm currently working on a book (not about gardening, alas), and it's consuming almost all of my free time. I'll still try to write something here at least once a month, but it might be a while until I'm back to posting more regularly. Thanks again for reading!
