Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Still Time To Plant

by C. Richard Maples

Extension Communications Specialist

Want an explosion of color in your summer landscape? Janet Carson, horticulturist for the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, suggests planting heat-loving annual and tropical flowers.

"There's still plenty of time to plant annuals, such as sunflowers, melampodium, threadleaf zinnias, portulaca, nirembergia and tithonia," says Carson. "They'll need to be grown in full sun.

"If you want to add color to a shady area of your lawn, you can use impatiens, begonias, coleus and torenia. Our caladiums have gotten off to a slow start, because they like warm soil. You can still plant the bulbs, and caladium plants are available at nurseries and home centers."

For non-stop color during the summer, plant tropical bloomers, such as hibiscus, bougainvillea and mandevilla. These plants thrive in Arkansas' heat, humidity and sunshine. The tropical flowers can be planted either in the ground or in containers.

"When you go to buy these plants, you may find that some are getting leggy, because they've been growing in the pots a while," noted Carson. "If you buy tall, leggy plants, cut them back by half to encourage them to fill out. Fertilize at planting, and clip off spent flower heads so the plants will continue to set flowers. If you're going to keep your plants in containers, fertilize them each month.

"Your landscape needs to have a permanent foundation of evergreens that you don't have to plant every year, but you can add seasonal color and diversity inexpensively with annuals and tropical flowers," Carson said.

For more information about flowers and other landscape plants, contact your county office of the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas.