The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Category Archives: Annuals

Verbena – DGP

Posted on by Posted in Annuals, Blooms .

Verbena (aka Vervain) are the gift that keeps on giving. While it’s an annual here in my New Jersey garden (Zone 6B), it reseeds like a mutha f’er. I didn’t plant any Verbena this spring in the location shown in the photo below. They emerged on their own.

Verbena

As a result, I’ve developed a process when it comes to planting Verbena each year: Never repeat the same location. Once they’ve been planted somewhere, I know they’ll continue to return in that same spot, hence no need for overplanting. I just make sure it’s a locale that receives full sun and isn’t overly wet, which can be a challenge for me and my waterlogged clay soil. Deer/rabbits do nibble some but not enough to slow them down. And I’m sure I just jinxed myself.

FREE PLANTS PEOPLE!!

And as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, they continue to bloom here into October until that deep frost hits. A sad day yes, but I know they’ll be back.

Blooms for months.

Color for months.

Smiles for months.

Summer still here – DGP

Posted on by Posted in Annuals, Blooms, Summer .

There’s a battle going on in the garden right now.

On one side we have the fall foliage: the reds, the golds, the yellows, the scarlets and the browns.

On the other side we have the summer blooms holding on for dear life. Like in the photo below.

The Verbena and the Scaevola still blooming their heads off. On a day like today, where the temps reached 80 degrees, this scene still feels appropriate. And it will for the next few days as the heat sticks around.

But we all know, all it takes is one cold night and it’s gone.

I’m not ready for it to go yet.

Scaevola – DGP

Posted on by Posted in Annuals .

Scaevola, also known as fan flower (which was news to me until I just researched it seconds ago), is my preferred annual for the front of a border (as seen in my Daily Garden Photo below) or as a spiller in a container.

Scaevola

I purchase Scaevola small in spring and in no time, they spread and fill a sizable open space. This includes pouring over on to my driveway where it softens the pavement and can withstand a trouncing from a basketball or a temporary flattening from a bike tire.

It isn’t deer resistant, but I plant it strategically where the deer don’t like to roam, like along my driveway.

What has your experience been?

An annual problem

Posted on by Posted in Annuals .

I’ve underused annuals in my garden forever.

Part of it comes from my love of perennials where I get to watch the plants grow and develop over the years. I feel a connection and I like how the narrative is created over time. Each perennial has a story and that story changes from season to season.

Not so much with annuals.

Part of it also comes from a sort of snobbery. Annuals are for the weak. Annuals are too easy. You don’t have to work for their flowers; they just bloom all summer without fail.

But deep down, I understand the value of the annual. I get that they can be great space fillers. I get that that they can provide color all season and when planted in conjunction with perennials, can ensure there is always something going on. They can provide abundance and abundance is good.

So over the past few years I’ve incorporated more and more annuals into my garden. And I’ll be the first to admit, I’m kind of bad at it. But I’m trying.

When I did my video garden tour in the last post, some of you commented on my weak showing when it came to the annual plantings. And you couldn’t have been more spot on. Even I noticed it as I filmed the tour.

So I did something about it. Well something small about it, as a starting point.

Check out the video below and you’ll see how I hopefully transformed one section of the garden by following the rule of abundance or massing of like plants.

In this case it was with Globe Amaranth.  I took 5 plants that were planted way too formally and in too perfect of a straight line.

And planned to add them to another existing planting of five.

So out they went in no time …

… and were easily added to their fellow planting across the front walk.

This time I did all I could to fight against my need for order and planted them in a more asymmetrical pattern.

The Globe Amaranth are mixed in among Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania Sedge) where I hope they create a contrasting vignette that only gets better as the blooms continue to emerge all summer and into the fall.

I’ll be sure to update you on this planting as we move into July and August.

Step one in my annuals transformation is complete.