Chapter 13

Flowers

The loveliness of flowering plants needs little embellishment by de­scription. Certainly every gardener seeks the beauty and color that can be brought to his grounds by a variety of flowers. The proper ar­rangement of flower beds in your garden and attentive care to them can insure you a continuing bloom of lovely flowers year after year. For with planning, it is possible to maintain flowers in your garden during the entire length of the growing season. Borders and beds are planted with flowering annuals and perennials which bloom at dif­ferent periods during the year. By choosing carefully initially, and by caring for the flowers there­after, the blooms will overlap each other, so that there will never be a period when an old bloom dis­appears but that a new one will start to show its color.

Soil Requirements

Preparing the soil for flower beds or borders requires greater care than planting a lawn. For one thing, digging must be deeper. It is not too much to dig the bed 2 feet deep, although 1 1/2 feet is suit­able. It is, of course, possible to grow flowers in a shallower bed than this, but the deeper you dig, the better your production will be. All heavy lumps should be broken up. It is a good idea to spread some sand, cinders or ashes in the bot­tom soil to break it up. Also, you might work manure, well-rotted compost, grass clippings or peat moss into the bottom. Do not firm the bottom soil down, but let it set­tle naturally.

Good loam should be used for the topsoil — e.g., well-rotted ma­nure, humus, peat moss, well-sifted leaf mold or heavy sand. Wood ashes are fine for spring, and lime may be used for loosening the soil. You might think about the charac­ter of your soil and consider the particular fertilizer which contains the elements your soil needs most. Should you use manure, be care­ful not to let it touch the roots of plants.

Flower Beds and Borders

The problems of color should be kept in mind when planning flower borders and beds, so that while there is sufficient contrast in texture and color of the flowers, there is at the same time an attrac­tive blending. A plan for a bed of annuals, for example, might be de­signed to stress zinnias, with con­trast provided by such softer flow­ers as chrysanthemum, scabiosa, nasturtium, cosmos and candytuft. Siting of the flower bed is im­portant.

Ideally, it should be close to the house, facing south or south-west. Any location that gets good sun, however, will produce well.

The border should be located away from trees or shrubs. These plants absorb more than their share of moisture and nutrients from the soil and, because of their strength, can overpower the more delicate flowering plants.

A good back­ground such as a stone wall or a fence adds to the beauty of a flower bed or border, and evergreen shrubs make a pleasing backdrop. Edgings need not be restricted, as they so often are, to one color (e.g., the white of alyssum). Coral bells, whose lovely foliage makes a handsome edge, are an all-season flowering plant, and they provide unusual cut flowers. Baby pansies, violas, portulaca, ageratum, dwarf double nasturtium and dwarf mar­igolds are multi-colored flowers.

Annuals

An annual, from the point of view of the amateur gardener, is any plant which must be replaced each year and which flowers only once in its life. Annuals generally are grown from seed. The chief ad­vantage of annuals over perennials is their low cost. Thousands of plants can be grown from a single packet of seeds.
Annuals are also very decora­tive, and provide the best source of flowers for cutting. Their season of bloom is relatively long, as well. Their chief disadvantage is the late date at which they bloom. If annu­als are used alone in a bed or border, a good part of the season will pass with little to show in the way of color.

Annuals are also of use as a filler between shrubs set some dis­tance apart. This permits the shrub to grow, yet prevents too stark an appearance.

The sowing of annuals, of course, depends upon the class to which they belong. The hardier flowers, such as larkspur, poppies and cornflowers, can be profitably planted in late fall. The ground preparation must be just as care­ful as for spring planting. Planting in fall is advantageous since it permits the flowers to get an early start the following spring. Certain other hardy annuals can be planted early in spring as soon as the ground is workable.

It is a good idea to start some of the less hardy annuals in seed pots, or in coldframes, as early as March. Otherwise, these plants cannot be set out until all danger of frost is gone. Outdoor planting of annuals in the spring follows thorough soil preparation. The seedbed must be carefully pulver­ized with a rake after it has been prepared and prior to planting. Eliminate all lumps.

The seeds are sown broadcast in the patch selected, and then are lightly covered with soil. The soil may be gently tamped after the covering is completed. The patch should be identified with a stake and some sort of sign. Flower seeds are best planted near the surface. In no case should they be sown more than 1 inch deep. The seeds of larger plants which have a strong growth, such as sunflowers, can be planted in hills spaced from 2 to 4 feet apart.

Often, annuals are planted in rows. This method is used when a cutting garden is being grown. To do this, dig a shallow trench not more than 1 inch deep with a trow­el, or your fingers, and then place the seed in the trench. Sow more seed than appears necessary, and then trim out after the plants appear above ground. Thinning is re­quired, in any event, for a good crop of annuals, if only to insure sufficient room for each plant.

Transplanting is a considerable shock in the life of a plant, and unless it is carefully done, the plant will die. It is a good idea to expose coldframes and potted seeds to the outside air for a time before transplanting, in order to prevent shock. All the soil in the frame or pot should be used when trans­planting.

Transplanting should be done on a cloudy, damp day, if possible. If the soil is dry, it should be watered before transplanting, and then thoroughly after the plants are in the ground. If the day is sunny, some sort of shade should be provided for the newly trans­ferred plants. As soon as the plants are established, these protective coverings can be removed.

Biennials

Biennials are generally very beautiful plants, with most attrac­tive flowers. They are somewhat more trouble for the gardener, since they keep growing during their first year and do not bloom until the second. Their great ad­vantage is that their seeding stage produces new plants which will bloom again two years later, mak­ing it unnecessary to plant addi­tional seeds.

The biennials are usually planted in early summer and transplant­ed to good soil when they are large enough to handle. It is a good idea to pot them at this time, particular­ly in areas where plants cannot be left outdoors all winter. In some cases, they can be transplanted to a coldframe, and then placed in the flower bed the following spring.

The requirements of careful soil preparation apply to biennials as well as annuals. After planting, if you want a continuous new growth of plants, it is best not to weed and cultivate too assiduously. If a really fastidious biennial patch is planted, it will be necessary to replace the plants with new ones each year.

Perennials

Perennials are the basic flowers of any garden. Each year they die and renew themselves for the next growing season. They are long-lived and last for many seasons.

Perennials are also, historical­ly, among our oldest plants. They have been cultivated for centuries and often, as a result of breeding and crossbreeding, bear no resem­blance to their wild forebears. In some of the perennials, the blos­soms have become so specialized through centuries of cultivation that they no longer grow 'seeds. Other perennials are continually being developed by amateur bota­nists and gardeners. As a result of this cultivation and inbreeding, perennials as a rule are not as hardy as other varieties. Another disadvantage is the tendency of certain perennials to die down after flowering, thereby leaving gaps in the garden.

There are a number of ways to solve the problems of short-flower­ing periods and the resultant un­sightly spaces. One way is to inter­sperse perennials with annuals and other bulbs and flowering plants whose bloom occurs either later or earlier than that of the perennials.

Some perennials are easy to transplant: chrysanthemums, for example, can be moved from one place to another with no noticeable effect on their vigor. This is an­other way to keep color and bloom throughout the growing season.

A garden of perennials, either by themselves or mixed with annu­als and other bulbs, should be placed along a path, or as a border, with a background of trees, shrubs, a wall or fence. The background shows the brilliant coloring to best advantage. Some varieties can flourish in the shade, such as ane­mone, lily of the valley, day lilies, sweet pea, primrose, hollyhock, harebell and peonies, but these flowers must be chosen carefully and faced so that some sun reaches them every day.

Bulbs, tubers and corms

Bulbs are the fleshy under­ground protuberances of leaves, stems or roots. Actually, "bulb" is a generic term, and some of these underground protuberances, all of which will grow into full plants, are more correctly called "corms" or "tubers." Tubers are thickened stem sections, covered with modi­fied buds; corms are also under­ground stem sections, but without the bud.

Some of the loveliest flowers are bulbs, and gardeners rely on them heavily because they bloom in such profusion with little care or cultivation. They are among the first blooms of early spring, with the diminutive snowdrop, for ex­ample, appearing in early March.

Planting Bulbs

Bulbs should be planted from 3 to 6 inches deep, and, as a rule of thumb, the larger the bulb, the deeper it should be planted. (Both tubers and corms are treated simi­lar to bulbs.) Using a spade, a slice is dug in the soil to the required depth, the bulbs placed in the hole and the sod replaced. If the soil is poor, a sprinkling of bone meal is added and mixed with the soil at the bottom of the hole.

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