How to Perk Up the Spent Summer Flower Garden

By this time of year, summer has taken it's toll on a perennial flower garden. Except for the endless bloomers like May Night Salvia, and a few re-blooming varieties of Daylily, the garden looks pretty well spent. If you like to see fresh color right up until frost, you can perk up the weary areas with a few bright annuals and perennials that are blooming now that will improve the appearance this year and come back refreshed next year.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Colorful Annuals
• Late blooming perennials
• old newspaper and mulch
• clean shears
• soil & pots

1. 
   Geraniums

   Deadhead everything and cut back plants like Dianthus and Wallflowers so they will provide a second round of bloom as the weather cools. Remove dried stems of tall plants like Liatris and Foxglove. Pull or cut the dried scapes of Daylily varieties that are done blooming and remove brown/dried leaves. Save seeds you want and discard the rest of the material in the compost bin. Weed and groom the garden area, pull out spent annuals and that grass that snuck in there. Cut the yellowed Hybrid lily stalks off leaving at least a third to restarch the bulbs; you can hide whats left of the stems from view with your taller new plantings or strategically placed pots.
   
   Loosen the soil in the areas that need to be replanted; use mulch to cover any bare areas that you don't want to replant and work in some time release fertilizer with a cultivator. Do any trimming or edging needed to make the garden look groomed.

2. 
   Red Salvia

   Annuals: Shop for some Red Salvia, which is inexpensive this late in the season and provides a lot of bang for the buck. The lowly Petunia is also a cheap way to add a lot of color quickly, and a few well placed clumps do wonders for a tired garden. Angelonia is a vertical accent that comes in pink, white and purple, it's inexpensive and plentiful. It has little snapdragon like florets, but tolerates late summer heat well if you keep soil moist, and cool the roots with mulch. I like to set natural clay pots around with plantings in them too, and the big plus here is you can move them around to get a harmonious color balance. They look great with ornamental grasses, Liriope or spikey accent plants instead of flowers, too. Scatter color everywhere, and use the new annuals strategically to hide the faded plants. Varying the forms from low growing to upright and creating contrast with variegated plants and colorful Coleus will bring the vibrancy back to your faded flower garden. Orange Cosmos blooms right up until frost, is fairly tall and you can never have too much of this bright beauty. Yellow Daisy and Red Geraniums bring bold primary color and impact, and you can find these plants in good condition fresh from the growers.

3. 
   White Angelonia

   Perennials: Late season perennials abound in garden centers and prices drop dramatically if you wait to get these. Dahlias which bloom in July, August and September are a mainstay in my garden. To get around heavy clay soil I simply start them in large pots of commercial potting soil in March. (The last frost date for my zone is March 23rd.) by late June they're forming buds and I transfer them to my garden, where they bloom until frost. Freesias which are wonderfully fragrant also bloom late, and come in a variety of great colors. Asters in rich rosy purple and blue hues complement the electric yellow of Goldenrod and bright orange of Butterfly weed. Mums flower as the heat dissipates, and give several weeks of rich color in yellow, red, rose and lavender shades.
   
   Always select your plants for the amount of sun you have. Many things will tolerate a little less sun than recommended and still flower, but plants that are recommended for shade will burn up in the summer sun. Local growers should carry plants that do well in your area. If you study your garden's sun exposure, read the care tags on your flower's pot, and monitor soil moisture, you'll have great success, and a revitalized flower garden that's a pleasure to look at again, right up until nature starts the cycle over at the first frost.

Tips & Warnings

• Water the holes before you add the plants and cover the roots, then water again thoroughly.
• Loosen roots when they are crowded in the pots by using thumbs or cutting in several places, and spread the roots out on a mound of soil in the bottom of the hole as you plant.
• If your husband complains about how much you spend on plants, don't take him shopping with you.

Resources

• "eHow Home and Garden Topic Guide."

[MommyTeach]

on 7/25/2009 I did this for our front yard. Unfortunately the Nemesias fried. I think our sprinkler system broke...

[gahazeleyes]

on 7/25/2009 This is great. Will pass this on. Thanks!

[ScarlettOHairy]

on 7/23/2009 Great suggestions for another blooming round. Beautiful photos. Thanks again, Jama!

[mweise]

on 7/23/2009 You packed a lot of good suggestions in this one! My Dad is a major gardener and is impressed. Now I got to go out and do all this stuff in his yard, thanks lol Great article, 5*