Don’t Give Up Color: Some Plants Like It Hot
People’s ideas about how a garden should look are often inspired by images from flower-loving England. In spring and early summer, many of these favorite flowers provide a vivid show of color in our country gardens. Then comes summer!
For color that lasts all summer, look to flowers that originated in warm summer climates such as Central and South America and tropical Asia and Africa. You can also enjoy native wildflowers that adapt well to cultivation. These hardy plants perform better in heat, and they are more likely to resist pests and disease.
Although heat tolerance is the overriding factor to consider in selecting summer flowers, you also need to keep rainfall and humidity--or lack of it--in mind. The eastern half of the nation usually stays wet, but the west remains relatively dry. Local gardeners can usually accommodate plants with high-moisture requirements by grouping them in one well-watered bed.
Marigolds, zinnias and dahlias--all native to Mexico--are the workhorses of summer and are favorites across the country. Other annuals from the tropical Americas include canna, flowering tobacco and cosmos. Wishbone flower and coleus originated in tropical Asia, while castor bean, gladiolus and lily-of-the-Nile came from Africa.
Some native North American flowers also adapt well to summer gardens across most of the country. Indian blankets, named for the zigzag petal markings that resemble designs on saddle blankets, bloom tirelessly if spent blossoms are removed. Golden coreopsis also blooms for long periods, as does gay feather with its purple fuzzy spikes. Gloriosa daisies are excellent for cutting. They produce throughout the summer, and their yellow petals are often marked with bronze or orange.
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Expose your plants gradually to the sun before you transplant them. Start with an hour of sun, and add an hour a day for one week. Most thrive in average soil amended with compost or manure. They also benefit from a balanced fertilizer applied regularly throughout the summer. To help prevent mildew, water them in the morning so the foliage can dry before sunset.
Flowers that add a splash of color to shady gardens and patios include tuberous begonias, which display rich colors when temperatures rise, versatile impatiens and the whimsical wishbone flower, whose small blue or pink flowers display a tiny white wishbone inside its yellow interior. These plants thrive so well in humid conditions that they are sometimes called Florida pansies.
Ever-popular coleus are grown for their multicolored leaves, which are as bright as Hawaiian shirts. Angel wing caladiums are prized for their large veined leaves painted in patterns of pink, red, green and white.
