Getting a Fresh Start for the Summer Season

For some flowers, the show is over. They have been blooming since early spring but are now played out, their petals littering the garden like the spilled popcorn in theater aisles. Though it always seems too soon, it’s time to start cleaning up and thinking about getting ready for summer.

Fortunately, not all spring flowers finish up at the same time or the work would be overwhelming. In my garden, the perennials--the delphiniums, dianthus and day lilies--are really just getting started and won’t need any attention for a while. And some bulbs and annuals are still going strong.

But the ranunculuses have had it, the tulips are gone and some of the daffodils are finished as well, and their untidiness is being attended to.

Tulips seldom come back with much conviction in Southern California, so they must come out, and it’s a good idea to dig them up while the leaves clearly mark their locations. If you planted them as deeply as you should have, this is no easy task. So while you’re at it, have a sack of soil amendment and fertilizer on hand and restore the soil at the same time.

I find products like Gromulch useful for this purpose since they are a mix of bark and other organic products that fluff up a soil--and, in the case of Gromulch, recycled sludge that provides much fertilizer value. I also sprinkle a little inexpensive granular fertilizer like Bandini Vegetable Food on the soil and mix all of this thoroughly with the dirt. It helps replace what the flowers have used.

Some annuals, like calendulas and snapdragons, may be barely past their peak at this point and you may want to enjoy them for a few more weeks. Cutting off the dead flowers, what gardeners call “deadheading,” definitely helps them last longer.

A few bulbs can also be left in the ground and may return next year. Though I haven’t had much luck getting daffodils to return (with a few notable exceptions, one being the Chinese paper whites, the other one named “Geranium”), some people do, especially in inland areas. And Lou Whitney at Roger’s Gardens in Newport Beach tells me that anemones return for him with great regularity.

A thorough watering also helps revitalize the garden. We had very little rain this winter and the last few storms barely wet the ground. I’ve been quite surprised at how dry some parts of my garden were. With all the flowers in bloom, I was reluctant to water since they get laden with droplets and start to lean or topple. But it is time to begin watering in earnest.

The touch of melancholy that accompanies the pulling out of spent flowers is quickly cured by a trip to the nursery to find some replacements. There you will find all the makings for a summer garden. Just be sure you’re not buying spring flowers--also stocked by nurseries at this time of the year for instant effect. What you want are the little packs of tiny plants that won’t bloom for a while but will then flower for several months. And at this time of the year, the smaller and younger the better, since they’ll have the time to develop good root systems before flowering.

Just about any summer annual can be planted this weekend, but if you are going to plant petunias, they should be the first to go in the ground since they don’t like the heat and smog of late summer. Planting them now helps avoid that trying season.

Marigolds and impatiens are two more good choices for early spring planting--one for sun, one for shade. Impatiens are so long-lived in our mild climate that they would seem to last forever, but if you have been nursing them along through the winter months, now is the time to take out the old plantings and start anew. They flower much more profusely planted each year.

Zinnias are the one summer flower that shouldn’t be planted this early--otherwise you’ll be battling mildew in late spring. Save them for later plantings, when other spring flowers have given up. In coastal gardens, be sure to protect every new planting with snail bait because they’re their most active right now and plants can disappear overnight. I have never figured out where the snails all come from--so suddenly--but they’re back, bigger and fatter than ever, and anxiously awaiting my next move in the garden.