Colorful, Care-Free Plants to Grow Now

We are getting back to Plant Care in this Blog. Assuming you have already purchased the plants you’d like to put in your containers or beds, you can now prepare to plant them. This time is best as the threat of frost should be over, even though we will still have a few cool or even cold nights until we get into the month of June. I will trust that you heeded my advice on acclimating the plants to full spectrum light before planting by having them in the shade for a few days.

I hope your choice of plants was well planned out, although I do have a few suggestions if you have not yet chosen. If you want a lot of blossoms and lush vegetation, you cannot go wrong with Begonias.

You can choose from over 1,700 varieties - Some low growing, some putting up large masses and loads of flowers. There are also begonias that are known for their colorful foliage as seen in the image below.

We like a couple of varieties called “Angel-wing” and “Dragon-wing”. The first ones are shade lovers, and the second ones are sun lovers. We also like the series “Bigs” as growing big. You should be able to locate some of these at local garden centers. 

Our next choice is Coleus. Again, there are a lot of varieties and these are primarily known for their leaf coloration, not flowers. Their colors make up for their lack of flowering. 

You can see in the examples above how beautiful the leaves are and how a flower would be lost amid them.

The next choice would be Impatiens. There was a problem with downy mildew for a few years, but the newer varieties have cleared that disease issue. They have hundreds of colors to choose from as you can see from the photos below. The British call them “Busy Lizzies”, and for good reason. They are very busy blooming all summer long while growing large masses at the same time.

I gave these examples of plants as they are almost care-free to maintain and put on a big show with little effort. You can choose other plants, but if you are a big fan of color variation and production, these suggestions are the best. 

Then, finally, if you are making larger containers, we like to mix either 3 or 5 different plants in each one. When you come to the Gardens, look at our containers. Note how we have them planted if you need to get an idea of good plant combinations as well as how they perform with optimal exposure and care. Conestoga House & Gardens are here for that express purpose, education, inspiration, as well as to provide a place to enjoy and seek refreshment in our lives. We open every year in early May, but most of our containers are not planted or placed in the Gardens until the temperatures are in the “Growing” range. Don’t wait – it’s always a good time to see the Gardens.

As always, if you have any related questions that you’d like to ask, please submit them to conestoga@ecklindevelopment.com.

Until next time,

Larry