Border plantings
Plants selected for border plantings need to harmonize, and go with the color of your house if the bed borders the house. Select varieties to allow for low-growing plants in front, with taller ones in the center and the back of the bed. Nursery employees can tell you the ultimate height of a plant. Use any combination of plants that you find pleasing, but for good landscape accent and combination, keep it simple.
A tried-and-true combination you might want to try is caladiums in front, salvia behind this, gloriosa double daisies next, and dahlias in the rear of the bed. A color scheme for this plan might be white caladiums, red salvia, yellow daisies, and any color of dahlia that you find appealing. Dahlias are available in numerous colors. Other attractive combinations are: Dwarf celosia (princess feather or cockscomb) in front to daylilies; Ageratum (Blue Mist or Blue Blazer) in front of yellow petunias; Dwarf marigolds or dwarf zinnias, all of one color, displayed in front of coleus (particularly the green-toned types); and Dwarf white periwinkle in front of red petunias or yellow marigolds.
Spring is fertilizing time for evergreen trees and shrubs, along with any deciduous trees and shrubs not fertilized in the fall. For individual shrubs, apply two to four cups of complete fertilizer such as 8-8-8, 5-10-10, or 10-6-4 per plant depending on plant size. Small plants will need less and extra large plants will need even more. It’s best to rake back mulch, apply fertilizer, and then replace mulch. For broadleaf evergreens such as azaleas, camellias, and hollies, use half the fertilizer in early spring or after bloom. Apply the other half of fertilizer a month to six weeks later. Do not apply nitrogen later than mid-July. Mixed fertilizers are fine for shade and ornamental trees that have not been fertilized regularly.
Balled-and-burlapped plants should have the ball of soil at least one-half as wide as the shrubs’ top spread. If the ball of earth is quite small in comparison with the top, the shrub will have difficulty surviving the shock of transplanting. Further growth of any shrub depends a great deal upon its roots; yet this is the part a buyer seldom sees.
If you grow your own border and bedding plants,
they should already have been seeded for planting in most areas. If you
haven’t,
do it right away. Whether growing your own or buying transplants, you
have many to choose from, with new colors and types appearing every year.
Choose from coleus, salvia, petunia, marigold, zinnia, geranium, celosia,
snapdragon, cosmos, periwinkle, and many others. Make the choice from
tall, intermediate, dwarf plants, to creepers such as verbenas, depending
on where they will grow.
Get a jump on the weather by starting plants indoors in clean, moist
sand, peat moss, or vermiculite. Tubers can be placed fairly close together
for sprouting. Transplant to outdoor beds after temperatures warm up.
Caladiums do much better when plenty of organic matter (compost, peat,
or well-rotted manure) is worked into growing beds. Also, mix in about
three pounds of a complete fertilizer per 100 feet of row before planting.
Sidedress with the same amount when plants are four to six inches high.