3 garden tips of the season

Spring brings out the best in Mother Nature. This is when she gets the opportunity to take back the original definition of the word “blooming” into its literal and natural sense of the word. You witness the fields reawakened with the presence of azaleas, redbuds, dogwoods, carpet phlox, daffodils and flowering quince. The air smells sweet of the fruity fragrance of cherries and pears along with some rhododendron and forsythia. In case you haven’t realized yet, welcome to the Piedmont landscapes. Some of you may be expecting “Welcome back to the Piedmont landscapes”. Because by the time these flowering beauties have been enumerated, you have reimagined Piedmont all over again as if meeting it for the first time.

Gardening enthusiasts familiar with this kind of landscape would have loved to see and smell the flowers for all of the four seasons that they have lived in the Piedmont landscapes. Green is good as far as landscapes may go. But not so good if it is at the expense of that sweet smell and lively colors. With these concerns noted, you should keep in consideration these four-season gardening tips:

1. Apply color contrast. 
Not all leaves are green and it does not mean lack of health on the part of the plant. Think of the burgundy leaves associated with certain flowering plants. As much as your plants bloom in spring, they don’t last that long. So to balance the color schemes present in your garden, have some plants with colors other than green to make up for the absence of some flowers. It also creates the illusion that winter hasn’t gotten that close yet.

2. Know which flowers can get through the winter and bloom in spring.
Some gardeners have their stock of tubers and bulbs bought from some specialty gardening stores. Plants like tulips, daffodils, amaryllis and crocus, to name some, survive the winter season. Think of them as similar to animals who hibernate in the winter only to come out come spring time. Except that these plants bloom in spring to make your garden colorful again. Asiatic and Oriental lilies are lovely in spring but tough in winter. They have flowers that you’d love to have on your vase by the guest room.

3. Sequence your plants based on which blooms first in the summer.
Hydrangeas are recommended to include in your collection of blooms. Different breeds bloom in different parts of spring with the Annabelle hydrangeas blooming first. Blue mophead hydrangeas bloom next and finally, pinky winky hydrangeas. Pinky winky hydrangeas are interchangeable with firelight hydrangeas and limelight hydrangeas depending on which breed do you find in your chosen gardening store first. Various breeds of hydrangea are known to be “southern belles” which gives you an idea of how well the blooms would flounder in the hotter months.

from Sublime Wind Chime http://www.sublimewindchime.com/2017/07/28/3-garden-tips-of-the-season/