Hardy Flowers Ready for Burst of Springtime
Although spring is still a month away, it looks as if it has arrived in sunny Southern California.
Local nurseries and garden centers are displaying colorful flowering plants that can brighten barren garden spots.
But not all are worth buying now. Some early winter plants, such as Primula malacoides (fairy primrose) have reached their peak and will soon fade away.
Others, however, are just starting a long seasonal show and are worth the investment now.
“Anemones are one of my favorite plants for a late winter garden,” said Anne Roth, landscape designer for Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar. “They produce so many flowers that you can cut them for bouquets and still have plenty for the landscape. They’re better than ranunculus, which at this time of year will last only another three weeks.”
Although anemones are often planted as bulbs in November, you can still include them in your landscape; they’re now available as blooming plants in 4-inch containers. Roth likes to combine them with Matthiola incana, or stock. The strain Trysomic, commonly called Ten Weeks stock, is a gray-leafed branching variety with single and double blooms; it grows to 18 inches tall.
Roth completes the landscape with a border of purple kale and bright green curly leaf parsley. For edging, she includes white alyssum and pansy Blue Crown, a clear blue variety.
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For a stronger color statement, Roth suggests a bed of Iceland poppies accented with a border of pansies Blue Crown edged with white alyssum.
She recommends placing plants four inches apart, closer spacing than usual, so that even if a few plants die, holes won’t be left in the garden.
She brightens up shade gardens with Primula obconica interplanted with dwarf cineraria (Senecio hybridus).
“The bright reds, yellows and blues are a riot of color,” she said.
Lew Whitney, president of Roger’s Gardens, also likes to use P. obconica for shady spots. “They hold up in late spring better than the other varieties of primulas,” he said.
The Bloomingdale’s variety of ranunculus, he said, will continue to flower through late spring. This is a newer variety and produces full-size flowers on shorter stems, a solution to the problem of toppling flowers. Colors include white, yellow, pink, orange and red, and Whitney said he likes to interplant them with blue anemones and edge the landscape with white alyssum.
There are many varieties of pansies and violas on the market, and these diminutive plants are often used to brighten up landscapes in what passes for winter in the Southland.
But adventurous gardeners are seeking other flower forms, said Mary Lou Heard, owner of Heard’s Country Gardens in Westminster.
“Although we sell a lot of pansies, we’ve noticed that this past year we haven’t sold as many,” she said. “Gardeners are seeking out more novel plants.”
Heard recommends poppies--California, Ladybird, Danish Flag and Shirley. Shirley poppies reach up to 3 feet and flower freely, with as many as 20 blooms per plant at one time.
“They remind me of crepe paper with their soft petals and muted colors,” she said. “They reseed freely. The seeds are resilient, so [they] are likely to bloom in subsequent years.”
Another annual that will reseed freely is myosotis, better known as forget-me-not. It flourishes in full sun in both inland and coastal regions now while temperatures are mild.
“They reseed so freely throughout the garden that once planted, you probably won’t have to buy them again,” Heard said. “Their blue color is particularly nice with yellow daffodils.”
Although growers offer bulbs like tulips, daffodils and freesias in containers, if you want to plant them for instant color, treat them as annuals and dig them up when the bloom is over.
You’re more likely to have success with Leucojum aestivum (summer snowflake), which produces nodding, bell-shaped white flowers on clumping plants with strap-shaped leaves.
“This is a fine investment because it will naturalize,” Heard said.
Other plants she recommends for quick pick-me-ups include clarkia, godetia, nemesia and a type of chrysanthemum that she describes as resembling buttercups--Chrysanthemum multicaule, popularly called Golden Raindrop.
“I can’t think of anything more springlike,” she said. “It’s not touchy at all and is a wonderful edging plant.”
Produced from eight-inch clumps of bright green foliage, the yellow annuals are striking with blue flowers such as Dutch iris and pansies.
Although avid gardeners like to seek out the new and unusual, Shirley Kerins, a landscape architect from Huntington Beach, cautions against becoming a plant snob.
“Don’t hesitate to plant what works, and that can include common plants like impatiens and geraniums,” she said. “Plants become popular because they succeed, like impatiens, which are so easy and they don’t give any grief.”
Kerins recommends mass plantings of impatiens for best effect. She also likes Iceland poppies for adding bright colors to landscapes. They, too, should be massed for greatest impact.
“Another common plant is Martha Washington geraniums--they do superbly along the coast,” she said. “An astounding combination is bright pink geraniums with Limonium perezii, commonly known as statice or sea lavender.”
Kerins also recommends salvia and columbine, which will continue to bloom through May, and Primula obconica for shade. She also suggests investing in cymbidium orchids.
“They’re great for livening up a deck, patio or balcony,” she said.
Camellias are also useful as foundation plantings or hedges that produce their colorful flowers in hues of white, pink, red or combinations, in late winter through spring. They’re best for eastern or northern exposures. Early-blooming varieties of azaleas are also permanent plantings to add color.
If your idea of springlike blossoms is delicate, pastel flowers, Whitney recommends Linaria. Their popular name, toadflax, doesn’t do justice to their lacy, delicate beauty. A strain named Fairy Bouquet grows to 9 inches and will produce pastel flowers now through spring.
“Their flowers always make me think of Easter because the pastel colors are like Easter eggs,” Whitney said.
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Instant Palette
Anemone
Camellia
Chrysanthemum multicaule
Clarkia
Columbine
Geranium
Gypsophila ‘Garden Bride’
Iberis (perennial candytuft)
Mysotos
Nemesia
Pansy
Poppy (annual)
Primula obconica
Stock
