Date: Fri 04-Oct-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: CAROLK

Illustration: C

Location: A10

Quick Words:

annuals-Bleach-Gardener

Full Text:

(Suburban Gardener on annuals for the fall, 10/4/96)

Suburban Gardener-

Defining & Finding Annuals For The Fall

BY ANTHONY C. BLEACH

The best definition of annuals is "they are a group of plants that provide

such masses of flowers so vivid and so varied in color and form in the heat of

summer (a time few perennials bloom) that it's hard to believe."

This was written thirty years ago by William B. Harris, founder of White

Flower Farm in Litchfield. This is also true at the farm now that fall has

come. The annual display bed is dazzling. The effect is like watching the fish

around the coral reefs of Barbados.

First was Melampodium "Show Star," covered with buttery yellow daises, in a

mound one foot across. It can flower for three months and never needs

deadheading... well, hardly ever. Beside it was another daisy shaped flower,

the Osteospermum "Salmon Queen." But these were four inches across in a soft

pastel.

Other South Africans were the popular Gazanias with yellow, golden or red rays

on the petals, dramatizing their form. "Christopher Lloyd," was carmine;

"Sundrop" had silvery leaves. These are best adapted to dry summers, when they

will endure for months. An eight-inch Gallardia, "Red Plume," had four-inch

pom-pom flowers, vigorous but of soft texture. A purple ornamental pepper with

fruits like bullets stopped me dead in my tracks.

If you yearn for blue in your borders, consider Felicia amelloides , "Blue

Margarite." It is a brush shrub one to three feet high, with rays as blue as

the Caribbean, with the central discs yellow. This gives emphasis to the blue,

of course. I had been wondering why my impression of the blue was so intense.

Ground-hugging varieties of verbenas provided a foamy edge to the bed. There

was "Silver Anne," which was however pink, and "Alba." The two-inch, intense

purple flowers of Petunia integrifolia mingled with the pinks of the larger P.

multiflora "Pearl Mixture." Lobelia "Royal Jewels," with tiny blue flowers and

the five-rayed, light purple stars of Egyptian Star Cluster added to the

richness of contrasts. Lamium "White Lightning," Plectranthus, Spanish Thyme

and Helichrysum "Limelight" all had yellowish foliage which was intriguing.

Height and lightness were given by Cosmos, "Verailles Mixture," with four-inch

exquisite slate pink flowers with bright yellow eyes; Nicotiana sylvestris ,

with greenish tubular flowers on four-foot stems and, as tall, the curving

stems of Salvia uliginosa with blue two-lipped corollas. African mallow,

Anisdontea capensis , two-foot tall with three-inch flowers, was a focal point

for the taller plants. Intriguing!

The two I wanted to have most were Cardoon, a four-foot high Mediterranean

thistle, as dramatic as a Greek vase, and C. atrosanguinea , "Black Cosmos,"

almost the ultimate in flower color.

(Anthony C. Bleach coordinates the horticulture programs as Naugatuck Valley

Community Technical College in Waterbury.)