Flowers from seed sown each fall brighten southern gardens and provide cut flowers during the winter and well into spring before the weather gets really hot. Fall-Sown Flowers For Southern Gardens Although all of these fall-sown flowers are not true annuals, they are mostly grown as annuals in the Midsouth, Lower South, and Tropical South. … Read more
The glorified Black-eyed Susan—one of our best native flowers (giant hybrid tetraploid Rudbeckia) also makes an excellent pot plant. The stems are shorter than when grown out of doors, but that is really an advantage for a pot plant. If desired for a cut flower, the longer-stemmed, outdoor Gloriosa daisy is better. This improvement of … Read more
Black-Eyed Susan, the country Cinderella of the fields, has exchanged her rough and rustic gown for raiments gay enough for a Spanish fiesta. The lowly daisy of the meadows, with yellow petals and a dusky center, has taken on a bold, striking, and wide-awake look to become the gloriosa daisy of today— and all because … Read more
Raising flowering annuals indoors is so simple that we wonder why it took so long for us to discover it. If you have a sunny window, you can do it too; you don’t need special window glass or a fancy planting box. The blooms may not achieve greenhouse perfection but are colorful on the sill … Read more
During the terrible New England drought last summer, some of my annuals put on a real demonstration of endurance. Because May was very cold and wet here in Maine, it was June 10 before my annuals for cutting were planted in rows in the vegetable garden. June, in the meantime, had turned unbearably hot and … Read more
Each summer for over a dozen years, I have grown one or more seldom-seen annuals in my central Missouri farm garden. These adventures with seeds have been little work and real fun for my family and me. Mirabilis Uniflora Last summer, the double four o’clock, referred to in the trade as Mirabilis uniflora, was a … Read more
There are three flowering plants that I hope I shall never lose, although I make no effort to keep them. They are the self-seeding sweet rocket, the black-eyed Susan, and the tall blue lobelia. Sweet Rocket (Hesperis Matronalis) The hardy perennial sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis) begins blooming early in spring, crowding its paniculate racemes of … Read more
We hear a lot about bedding plants, particularly from English gardeners and tourists back from looking at English gardens, but what are bedding plants, anyway? Certainly not, as you might think from the results some people seem to get, plants grown in the spot where the family dog insists on sleeping. Nor is bedstraw, a … Read more
Many new homeowners who show excellent taste in furnishing their houses are at a loss when it comes to planting their grounds. Often, the chief reason for poor landscaping is a lack of experience with the basic materials—plants. Concentrate On Annuals One of the best ways to start learning about plants is to concentrate on … Read more
For several years, we tried unsuccessfully to grow baby’s breath, Gypsophila paniculata, and in particular, the improved Bristol Fairy from grafted plants we bought. Usually, before the weather was warm enough to plant them outdoors, we lost many of them. But the mysterious appeal of this airy, graceful plant with its deceptively delicate-looking, well-balanced stalks … Read more