Let your love bloom in this Valentine’s month when you fill your garden (and heart) with stunning flowering plants in the most passionate colours, available at your favourite nursery.
Romancing the dwarf rose
Why settle for one short-lived long-stemmed red rose when you can rather have a patio filled with potted roses. Miniature rose varieties collectively known as “patio roses” are freely available in warm seasons. They flower profusely if kept in good light and are protected at root level with a layer of organic mulch to keep their roots cool and moist.     Â
Give love with a “love palm”
The dwarf parlour palm (Chamaedorea elegans) hailing from tropical rainforests has such a sexy and lush appearance, that it has earned itself the more well-known common name of ‘Love palm’. It is the perfect ‘love token’ to grab a Valentine’s attention.
Green and bold-leafed plants in general, (which include huge palms) and botanical prints on upholstery, have become trendy decor items indoors. So, if you want to spend a little more, invest in the graceful kentia palm (Howea belmoreana) as well.
Sweet and juicy
In yesteryear, strawberry planting time used to be in April when baby plantlets were removed from the mother plant to fill a newly, compost and manure enriched strawberry patch. Nowadays you will always find ready-to-plant strawberry plants in nurseries. Plant them up in window boxes or hanging bowls, feed and water often and enjoy their beauty, even when not in fruit anymore.
Colouring in…
Replace tired bedding plants with seedlings of heat-loving Salvia splendens ‘Blaze of Fire’ or ‘Flare Bright Red’. Compliment the bright red upright flower spikes with silvery-grey Cineraria ‘Silver Dust’ – they like it hot and dry and will give you a flower and foliage-filled transition into late autumn.
Mulching is priority!
Mulch around all plants and veggies using a light 5-10cm mulch (dried leaves, straw, bark, coarse compost or peach pips) that allows the water to penetrate easily.
Advantage: Watering requirements can be cut down dramatically, and weeds are smothered and discouraged.
Prime timeÂ
If you choose modern hybrids and tough favourites, you will be rewarded with greater flower power for less hassle in a flowery late summer border. Some of these include:
- Salvia greggii hybrids – constantly in bloom from summer into autumn.
- Hemerocallis hybrids – every day a new flower and edible too.
- Angelonia angustifolia hybrids – relish the summer heat.
- Echinacea ‘Cheyenne spirit’ – will smother you in flowers until autumn.
- Leucanthemum ‘Daisy May’ – huge white single daisies on short, sturdy stems.
- Pentas lanceolata ‘New Look’ – Dwarf perennial with ample flower heads made up of small star-shaped flowers. These are perfect gap fillers in white, soft pink and fuchsia-red.
Latest fully grown dwarf veggies in containers
Pop into your local GCA garden centre to pick up the latest fully grown dwarf veggies in containers, which will be ready to start harvesting from even while still sitting in a car’s boot. These are a modern trend to help small space gardeners to pot it up and grow it on. They include chillies, cherry tomatoes, and fresh loose-leaf lettuce varieties. Take advantage of these time-saving yummy goodies now, which will supply you with something to eat while waiting for other crops to mature.
Feed your garden
You should now use slow releasing soil and plant fertilisers which contain composted seaweed, fishmeal, humic acid and poultry manure – all natural minerals and growth stimulants to maximise and sustain summer growth, but which will also increase the water holding capacity of the soil. Feed and compost shrubs and climbers which will start flowering in late winter. Perennial salvias thrive in the heat and will soon make a spectacular autumn display. Make sure they are fed to give their best.
Bug watch – red spider
Look out for red spider mites which are problematic in periods of drought and very hot weather – use the correct insecticides to control this pest properly on plants like fruit trees, roses and shrubs, but destroy annuals like tomatoes, if too heavily infested.
KwaZulu Natal
It’s prime time for bougainvilleas, hemerocallis (daylilies), and variegated and green foliage plants. Plant these for a bold, bright and beautiful garden.
Purchase and plant beauties like fuchsias, pelargoniums, heliotropes, hydrangeas, felicias, diascia, osteospermums, lavenders, rosemary, carnations, daisy bushes, begonias and verbenas.
On hot days… Mist-spray houseplants like ferns and orchids to provide extra humidity. Keep ponds and bird baths topped up, for your feathered friends.
Watering wisdom – use a soaker hose rather than a sprinkler. Less water is required because the water is concentrated on the soil nearer the roots and there is less evaporation.
Time saving tips: Cover the compost-enriched soil with weed matting before planting these ‘camels’, through slits you have cut in it. Add a mulch of gravel or pretty pebbles over the weed matting after watering in the newly planted, and let them work their magic.
For more information on bringing Life to your Garden, visit our website www.lifeisagarden.co.za or join the conversation on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/lifeisagardensa.
