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| Flower Gardens |
Flower Gardens
- The Power of Flowers
- Garden Design
- Raise Healthy Roses
- Flowers in Fashion
- Grow a Wildflower Meadow
- Fall Bulbs
The Power of Flowers
Bring your garden's beauty indoors to create 'a spark of joy'
By Samantha Meinke
Photography by Matthew Mitchell
There's nothing quite as special as a beautiful arrangement of flowers cut fresh from the garden.
It's something Sharon Yantis, a Portage, Mich., floral expert understands very well.
"A fresh flower arrangement brings a spark of joy," Yantis says. "I think we need a lot of joy in our lives."
Yantis fills her home with flowers, and loves to share them with other people.
"It shows people you care," she says. "And I think it's a joy to give flowers to a hostess or to somebody in the hospital. There's a healing element to them. I think they have such an impact on people. You can see it in the smiles on their faces."
It was at her family's third-generation Ohio farmhouse that Yantis first fell in love with flowers.
Her father unwound in the family's garden after long days spent farming their 350 acres. Her mother grew zinnias, roses, larkspur, and sweet peas and cut them for arrangements indoors.
"A lot of my expertise was picked up from my mother," Yantis says. "She could take something that didn't look like much and make it beautiful. We didn't have a lot of money growing up, but our house was always filled with flowers."
After marrying and moving to western Michigan, Yantis began a formal study of flowers. She taught courses on floral arranging at community centers, and began a business composing floral arrangements for weddings and local churches.
She studied to become a flower show judge, and entered and won floral arranging competitions, eventually earning the title of master flower judge.
Yantis also rose through the ranks of Michigan Garden Clubs, serving for a time as its state president. She joined the board of National Garden Clubs, and now serves as its national public relations chairperson.
She's recognized as an expert in her field, and she's eager to share her knowledge with others.
Step by step
Bring joy from your flower garden into your home with Yantis' six steps for a balanced floral arrangement:
Step 1: Prepare your container to support your flowers by filling it with marbles, using a floral frog - sturdy foam used to hold up flowers and foliage - or composing a grid of very thin transparent tape across its opening.
Step 2: Criss-cross branches, leaves, or greenery in your container to build a base of support for your flowers.
Step 3: Add your line flowers - flowers or branches that are at least 11/2 times the height of your container. These will give your arrangement the height it needs. Good choices for line flowers include bells of Ireland, delphinium, larkspur, and gladiolus.
Step 4: Add your focal flower at the center of your arrangement. These flowers should be the largest, most rounded, and most colorful in the arrangement, along the lines of lilies, Fuji mums, roses, and Gerbera daisies.
Step 5: Following the shape created by your line flowers, add filler flowers, which should be smaller than the focal flowers. With these you can echo the color of your focal flowers or create high contrast by using opposite color tones. Good choices for filler flowers include statice and carnations.
Step 6: Give your arrangement a bit of flourish at the end by adding grass or branches for added height and width.
Samantha Meinke is a freelance writer living in Eaton Rapids, Mich.
Help your flowers last longer
Sharon Yantis offers these tips to make your arrangement longer lasting:
- Cut flowers in the early morning or late afternoon when they're least stressed and get them in water as soon as possible.
- Store them in a cool, dark place for a few hours before arranging them.
- As you add flowers and greenery to your arrangement, cut them at the bottom at an angle. That way, when standing upright they can still get all the water they need.
Garden Design
Plan now for bursts of color next spring
By Pam Rye
Illustrations by Pam Rye/Tom Milner
Flower bulbs are Mother Nature's way of shaking us from winter's cold grasp and colorfully showing us that spring, indeed, is on the way. Crocus, hyacinth, tulips, lilies, dahlias, and iris are a welcome sight after weeks of bare branches and cold winds.
For your own display of spring-blooming bursts of color, you'll need to start planning and planting this fall. Generally, late October to mid-November is the peak time to plant.
The sheer variety of bulbs available can make choosing difficult. Select the largest bulbs you can afford. The smaller the bulbs or size of a bloom, the more you will need to make an impact. In most cases the premium size is worth the extra money.
Write it down
First things first: Put your ideas on paper. Think about how you want your spring flowers to look. Bulbs, with their vivid color and variety, provide hotspots of color or punctuation and in massive drifts. They blend well with other plants or can be the sole focal point in raised beds.
There is no single, right way to design a bulb display - design what you like - but the following suggestions may help you achieve pleasing results:
- Overplant bulbs in thick clusters. You don't want them to be sparse or appear as if you could play connect the dots.
- Interplant bulbs. Layer them to achieve more blooms in the same bed area.
- Plant in groups or drifts. Bulbs look best when surrounded by other bulbs, but avoid lining them up like toy soldiers. They look more natural in clumps.
- Extend your garden's blooming time. Choose multiple species or successive bloom times for a long display period.
- Down in front. Place taller bulbs toward the back of the beds to avoid overshadowing shorter varieties.
- Colors that work. Choose color schemes that appeal to you. Are you drawn to pastel or vibrant, warm or cool colors? Use a color wheel to help you decide. If you're still not sure, try going for contrast (yellow and purple, black and white) or go monochromatic (different shades of a single color: purple, violet, and lavender).
- Use repetition but avoid monotony. Keep in mind that using too many colors or too many types of plants can look busy or messy, so keep it simple with just three or four colors. The size of the bed will determine how many types you can successfully blend.
Time to plant
Once you complete your design and purchase your bulbs, it's time to plant. Place the bulb garden in a full-sun to part-sun location that has well-drained soil. You may need to amend the area with enough extra soil and organic matter to establish a 6-inch deep bed.
Creating a berm or a raised bed is an excellent idea for any landscape bed, but is especially worthwhile for bulbs. For drifts, or large groups of bulbs, use a shovel or spade to remove enough soil to place your bulbs at their proper depth; for individual bulbs, use a bulb planter.
A good rule of thumb for depth is to plant them two times deeper than the height of the bulb. For example, a 3-inch tall bulb should be planted 6 inches deep.
Plant the largest bulbs first and cover with half of the soil; then plant and cover smaller varieties. This technique will allow you to "layer" the blooms and result in a fuller floral display per square foot of bed area.
Plant "nose" or tip up and cover with enough soil that the bed is level or slightly higher than the surrounding soil. Finish your work by applying 2-3 inches of mulch and then water adequately to settle the soil.
Bulbs perform best with periodic feeding with an organic fertilizer that includes phosphorous. A few excellent choices include bone meal, blood meal, and cottonseed or alfalfa meal mixed with rock phosphate. Apply fertilizer at planting and again after blooming.
Container planting
Bulbs can also be used in containers, which allow for convenience and mobility. This is good news if you were overly enthusiastic in your purchases and didn't get the beds ready for planting, or if you're a city dweller with only a balcony.
Choose a container with drainage holes. Place a half-inch of pebbles in the bottom, fill half full of quality potting soil, and mix in bulb food.
Next, place the bulbs as close as possible. I highly recommend using the layering technique in containers, covering each successive layer with soil, leaving a half-inch to 1-inch lip.
Keep outside and water occasionally to keep slightly moist. Once you see their noses pushing through, move the pot to the desired location and prepare for a dazzling display.
Bulb planting is unlike other types of gardening, because you don't see immediate results. While it may seem ungratifying in the fall, your hard work and patience will be greatly rewarded next spring when the treasures you buried reveal their glorious bounty.
Pam Rye is a garden designer and University of Tennessee extension agent in Clarksville, Tenn.
Raise Healthy Roses
Old-fashioned bloomers thrive with little care
By P. Allen Smith
Photography by Jane Colclasure
Roses top the list as America's favorite flower for good reason. Few plants display more beauty, charm, and allure. Our long-held desire for these sumptuous blossoms is reflected in the thousands of varieties that have been developed through time.
Along with their pretty faces, some roses have developed the reputation for being finicky and high maintenance.
Because I'm not one to fuss over my plants, I prefer hardy, disease-resistant varieties. That's how I fell under the spell of old-fashioned roses, known by names such as antique, heritage, heirloom, or Old Garden roses.
They differ from the classic roses you think of in Valentine bouquets. These flowers vary in their look and style; some are open and blowsy while others are compact and tightly petalled.
But their allure is more than skin deep. Because they have prevailed in the landscape for generations with little or no attention, they are tough survivors and require less maintenance than many of the modern tea roses.
Heritage varieties are great for new gardeners because their natural vigor helps them flourish.
Along with the old-fashioned varieties, a relatively recent introduction also has captured much attention - the Knock Out(r) rose.
Wisconsin rose enthusiast William Radler worked for years to create a nearly maintenance-free rose. Knock Out is cold tolerant to zone 5, heat tolerant throughout the United States, reliably resistant to disease, and produces a bevy of blooms that appear every five to six weeks from spring until the first hard frost. How's that for carefree?
The right place
After you've selected a variety to grow, provide it the kind of growing conditions and care so it will thrive:
Sunlight - Most roses require about six hours of sunlight per day, so before you plant, choose a spot and keep track of the sun throughout the day. If you have your heart set on growing a rose in a dappled light, look for shade-tolerant varieties such as Buff Beauty or the vigorous climber, Lamarque.
Soil - Roses require nutrients found in rich loamy, well-drained soil. Because my garden's soil is mainly heavy clay, I've developed a rose soil recipe that has never failed me.
If your soil is less than desirable, mix up a batch and give it a try.
Ingredients:
- 2 buckets of existing garden soil from the hole you are digging
- 1/2 bucket of bagged manure
- 1 bucket of bagged compost (or use your own if you have a compost pile)
- 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts (for added magnesium)
- 2 chopped-up banana peels (for added potassium)
- Fish emulsion (follow label directions)
- Mulch
Correct planting - To save money, I usually buy bare root roses rather than those grown in a container. If that is what you are planting, soak the roots overnight in a bucket of tepid water to rehydrate them.
Dig a hole at least 18 to 20 inches deep and wide enough to spread out all the roots. Place the chopped banana peels in the bottom of the hole. Blend all the dry ingredients in a wheelbarrow and mix well.
Now, here's an important point. Pay attention to the bud union; that's the swollen juncture between the top of the roots and the main part of the trunk. If you live where winter temperatures fall below zero, bury that area about 1 to 2 inches below the surface of the ground for protection. In milder parts of the country, plant the rose so the bud union is an inch above the ground.
Fill the hole with enough soil so the rose is placed in the correct position for your climate. Spread out the roots in the hole and then begin filling in with the rose soil mixture in gradual layers, gently tamping the soil around the roots. After the hole has been filled, water the soil to help settle it in the hole.
Mix up a solution of fish emulsion following label directions and apply it around the rose. Add a layer of mulch to the planted area to keep weeds down and conserve moisture.
Water - Keep watering your new roses throughout their first season. How often depends on conditions, but on the average, if it doesn't rain, water new roses twice a week. Water them thoroughly by letting the water slowly seep in; deep waterings are better than light ones.
Avoid splashing the foliage or watering late in the evening because that fosters fungal diseases such as black spot or powdery mildew.
P. Allen Smith, Tractor Supply's gardening partner, is host of two national TV programs, a regular guest on the Today show, and author of P. Allen Smith's Bringing the Garden Indoors and other books in the Garden Home series.
Flowers in Fashion
Bold colors, bright accents are new for 2010
By Jodi Torpey
This year's spring fashions include vibrant color combinations, dynamic new forms, and updated versions of old-fashioned favorites.
Think we're talking about fabulous designer shoes and handbags? Think again. The latest fashion trends are headed to a flowerbed near you.
"Flower color interest follows fashion and there are some interesting color combinations happening now," says Renee Shepherd, seed expert, cookbook author, and founder of Renee's Garden, an online seed company in northern California (reneesgarden.com).
Bold colors with bright accents will steal the show this year, flower fashion insiders say. Gleaming yellow, rosy peach, dusty lavender, and baby blue are some of the must-have colors for the walkway.
One trend in annuals includes many new varieties of favorite old flowers, such as hollyhocks in frilly forms and ornamental sunflowers in designer colors, Shepherd says. Even zinnias are making a fashionable comeback.
Two other interesting trends include scented annuals and climbing vines for small spaces. Short vines, such as "Jack & Jill" sweet peas, are perfect for planting in a container with a small trellis.
If gardeners are unfamiliar with planting flowers from seed, Shepherd suggests starting small with easy-to-grow varieties. Just follow the packet directions, sow the seeds directly in the ground and thin seedlings to give them room to grow.
Growing flowers from seed isn't only fun, but it's a form of gardening that will never go out of style.
Grow a Wildflower MSeadow
Native plants create a natural haven for wildlife - and you
By Amber Stephens
Native wildflowers along country lanes are nature's roadside rests, offering habitat for rabbits and red-winged blackbirds alike.
Homeowners can preserve native wildflowers, which not only prove beautiful additions to the landscape but also valuable natural resources for bees, butterflies, and even mammals. With a little labor, patience, and money you can soon turn an ordinary patch of lawn into an environmental Eden.
But just because the wildflower meadow looks natural, it may not be naturally occurring in all areas, says Laura C. Martin, author of two dozen gardening books including The Wildflower Meadow Book. "You're planting and maintaining an ecosystem rather than a controlled environment."
Much like other gardens, the wildflower meadow needs a gardener's touch to keep Mother Nature at trowel's length. Without maintenance, the wildflower meadow can quickly revert to its native state or become overrun with other vegetation.
The first-time meadow gardener should start small, selecting a sunny area that is manageable in size. Prepare the meadow garden by removing any existing plants. An effective way to accomplish this is to cover the ground with black plastic, which smothers out grass and invasive species, or apply herbicides.
"As best as you can, you need a blank canvas to start," Martin says. Once existing greenery is removed, till the soil and select a variety of native species. Avoid Eurasian plants such as Queen Anne's lace, yarrow, and various non-native daisies.
Wildflowers, such as butterfly weed, goldenrod, ox-eye daisy, aster, coreopsis, evening primrose, gaillardia, and purple coneflower thrive in meadow gardens. Native grasses, such as native big bluestem and buffalo grass, make natural complements.
When selecting wildflower seed mixtures, make sure only native plants are included in the mix, Martin advises. Consumers should also note the percentage of each plant in the mixture. It may be more economical to buy bulk seed of a particular wildflower than to buy a prepackaged mix.
For a natural meadow look, broadcast, or sow, the seed and cover lightly with topsoil or a topsoil and sand mixture. Or, plant specific seed varieties in pockets, allowing each plant zone to eventually grow together for ease of maintenance.
Water the wildflower meadow until the seedlings are established and again during summer dry spells. Maintain the area by pulling any weeds or invasive plants. After the wildflowers have bloomed, allow the seed heads to dry and reseed naturally. Mow at the end of the season to prevent overcrowding and shading of next spring's seedlings.
To prevent the meadow from naturally reseeding, mow wild-flowers immediately after bloom or burn the area. Gardeners can also
selectively cut any wildflowers that are too aggressive and introduce new varieties to the meadow.
The meadow garden will soon give back with an endless supply of cut flowers; a relatively low-cost, drought tolerant landscape with wildlife viewing area; an
alternative to pricey lawn care; and a vital preservation link to America's floral heritage.
Amber Stephens is a freelance writer and editor from Amanda, Ohio.
Fall Bulbs
Plant now for welcome color bursts next spring
By Peter Fossel
Our last goodbye to the growing season behind us lies in the bulbs we can plant before frost, whose blooms will welcome us to the garden again in spring.
And what a medley it is: tulips, daffodils, narcissus, hyacinths, crocus, and others we can plant when summer is done, knowing the fruits of our labor will spring forth in color and fragrance to cheer us for weeks on end, just when we need it most.
Spring bulbs are a gardener's tonic and treasure, so here are some tips for bringing the treasure home.
First, most bulbs last for years, the exception being tulips, which once bloomed year after year predictably as April rain. But with hybridization, where bloom size and stem height became key, the perennial trait was lost. Tulips today - the so-called Darwin hybrids - bloom once and then decline. They are considered annuals now.
A solution is to plant what are called "species" (or wild) tulips, which aren't as showy or tall, but are as cheery as springtime. Or look for other perennial tulip varieties, such as Fosterianas, which last practically forever and have beautiful long-stemmed blooms.
Select spring-flowering bulbs in time to get them planted several weeks before first frost. They need to get in the ground and have time to establish roots before ground freeze stops the rooting.
A bulb planter, a tapered metal tube with a handle, which you twist into the ground to make a hole, makes digging bulb holes a whole lot easier. But if your soil is compact clay, or you have many bulbs to plant, consider buying a bulb auger. Put this in an electric drill, pull the trigger, and you have a hole in seconds.
Place a bit of bone meal or a commercial bulb booster in the hole to promote rooting. Bulbs also love dried manure and compost.
The general rule is to plant a bulb at a depth three to four times its height. This not only helps them naturalize, but it prevents squirrels and other rodents from chewing them.
Plant bulbs with the fat end down. Place large bulbs about 6 inches apart, and small ones about 2 inches apart.
Spring bulbs love full sun, but because they all flower before trees leaf out you can plant under deciduous trees.
In spring, remove a tulip's seed head to conserve energy in the bulb. Others need no dead-heading unless they're unsightly. Let the foliage remain for 6 to 8 weeks to feed the bulb and ensure a good bloom next spring.
To hide this browning foliage, and to provide the dry shade in summer that bulbs love (especially tulips, which need a dry dormancy), plant them among daylillies, hostas, peonies, irises, or other perennials. This will leave you with a long season of spring blooms, a time for the bulbs to regenerate, and - best of all - nothing to weed.
Peter Fossel is gardens manager at The Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson in Hermitage, Tenn.
