Around the Yard

Things to do this week:

* Continue to put in bedding plants. It’s not too late to fill beds with winter and spring-blooming bedding plants. Nurseries should be full of small plants. Choose from sweet alyssum, calendula, English daisy, Iceland poppy, larkspur, lobelia, pansy, annual phlox, primrose, ranunculus, stock, sweet pea, sweet William and viola.

Or, sow seeds of California wildflowers and wildflower wannabes. Annual African daisy, California poppy, clarkia, corn poppy, cosmos, larkspur and sweet alyssum are extra-easy from seed scattered now.

* Plant primroses in pots. One flower that fares better in a container than it does in the ground is the English primrose, Primula polyantha. Although it is commonly sold as an annual bedding plant, this primrose behaves like a perennial in a pot, lasting several years and blooming each winter and spring. In summer it stops blooming, but stays green and leafy and might produce a stalk or two.

English primroses are decidedly old-fashioned looking, especially the varieties with contrasting rings on the blooms. They are less likely than other primroses--such as the fairy primrose or P. obconica--to be show-stoppers because their individual spikes bloom one after another. So the English primrose makes less of a show but flowers for a much longer time.

They like a slightly acidic soil: They thrive in potting mix and do best when fertilized about once a month.

* Switch to crystals. During cool winter weather, liquid forms of fertilizer, high in the nitrate form of nitrogen, work fastest and best. These fertilizers usually come as crystals that must be mixed with water, such as Peter’s or Miracle Gro. Not many plants need fertilizer in winter, but bedding plants do and so do container-bound plants. Fill watering cans with the fertilizer solution, or use a siphoning device on the hose (available at nurseries).