Plant Flowers This Month for Fall Color

August is a good time to be thinking of fall color. Pansies and violas can furnish you color quickly and brilliantly. During August you can purchase these lively garden entertainers at your nursery in cel paks.

Planted from cel paks they will begin showing their colors in five or six weeks. They are wonderful for edging beds and borders. Alternate groups of them in flower beds and you’ll create a wonderful effect. Plant them together in the window boxes or alone in pots and containers. They’ll assert their colorful charm.

If you generally think of violas as blue, take another look! Today violas offer flowers of yellow, apricot, white, blue, violet, ruby and more. Pansies maintain the pace with varieties available in apricot, white, yellow, ruby, ruby, pink and shades of blue from light lavender to deep violet. And don’t forget the spectacular bicolored varieties, clear-faced pansies and the familiar varieties with the prominent blotch.

Pansies and Violas will do well in full sun along coastal areas. In the hot inland valleys, it might be best to wait to plant them until the cooler weather arrives.

This pair like a lot of moisture and heavily enriched soil. See that the soil has plenty of compost worked into it. Give them a chance to get their roots well established. Fertilize them with a good commercial fertilizer every six weeks and they’ll reward you with truly wonderful masses of color. Planted in beds, pansies need about eight inches of room between plants. Violas may be spaced more closely. Check with your local California Certified Nursery Professional for recommendations on the best planting time and varieties for your area.