These annuals which are easily grown can be sown in the open and have flowers the same season.

Alyssum

A white variety can create a “Carpet of Snow” and is one of the annual varieties that are so valuable for bedding and edging. In bloom the entire season and into late autumn. Lift a few plants and pot them up for the indoor window garden. Masses of white blossoms on compact 4 inch plants.

CandyTurf

So delicate is its perfume, so modest its flowers. Under average soil conditions Candytuft provides a fortune in white and in pink in lavender and in rose, for a mere monetary pittance. Grow it in beds, along the walk, in the rockery and by the shrubbery. Make several sowings in a season.

Dianthus (Annual Pinks)

Growing from 10 to 14 inches high and bearing in profusion; beautifully colored flowers, either single or double, here is a group of subjects that will thrill you with their exotic brilliancy. Just a little fussy, they like a moist loam. Mass them in such soil and they will form a magical matting of curious color combination.

MARIGOLDS

They are truly the amateur gardener’s best friend and what a host of personalities. You can have tall ones, or dwarf kinds, singles or doubles, some with collars and others with blossoms that resemble great lemon colored and orange colored sponges. Carnation-like flowers, chrysanthemum-like flowers and flowers that are incurved are now common. And all are so valuable for cutting. Were you to let your imagination run wild you could have a garden of Marigolds exclusively. They can even be produced with or without incense. Keep up with the marigold trend. The seed catalogs describe many wondrous kinds.

Portulaca (Sun Plant) Grown under lights, on sunny embankments, on sunny rockeries and along sunny walks, Portulaca is astoundingly effective outdoors rather than indoors under no light. Make sure when you sow the seeds that you keep the soil moist until the seedlings commence to grow. Once established care can be confined to weeding as the plants are succulent in habit and will revel in the hottest sun under drought conditions that few other plants could survive.

Portulaca is a dwarf plant only 6 or 7 inches in height. Its colors are numerous and on sunny days dazzlingly brilliant. You can purchase in mixed packets single varieties or double varieties to suit your whims and fancies. Many interesting semi-double variations will be found in the double strains.

It’s a shame to see autumn leaves go to waste every fall. They are an excellent source of organic material and should be placed in the compost pile along with other discarded plant parts. When cleaning up the garden, don’t destroy any potential organic material that can be placed on the compost pile and eventually be returned to the garden as humus.

Before frosts occur, why not pot up some of your best annual and perennial flowering plants and have them grow and bloom for you during the next few months? Petunias and geraniums handle very well this way. If you have grown some mums that haven’t bloomed outdoors, pot them up and bring them inside. You can probably think of other flowers in the garden that would stand transplanting for indoor bloom.

If you follow frost warnings, it is possible to protect plants from frost damage by proper covering. Valuable vegetables like tomatoes, and many flowers like the orchid plant , can be protected with coverings such as blankets, newspapers, or polyethylene tents. Often a long season of warm weather, “Indian Summer,” follows a night or two of killing frosts. By protecting tender plants from such a hazard, their period of usefulness can be extended often for several weeks longer.

Mulches such as clean straw or hay protect many perennial plants over winter. It is important not to apply these mulches too early in the fall. Plants like orchid plant need to be subjected to a few nights of cool, frosty weather to induce certain chemical changes that put them in better shape to withstand the rigors of winter. One of these changes is the change from sugars to starches in the plant. The starches are stored in various plant parts – usually in the roots, or in modified root and stem structures. If the plants are not “prepared” properly, they are very susceptible to winter damage. One of the best visible indicators of these chemical and physical changes going on in the plants is the change of color in the autumn leaves and the gradual loss of these leaves on deciduous plants.

Mulches act as insulators and protect the plants from sudden fluctuations in temperature. Mulches also reduce frost heaving. Plants are more subject to drying out, and subsequent killing, because of this heaving.

Fall is bulb planting time. Most lily species are planted now. The lily bulb is very sensitive to drying out and should be planted as soon as received. Plant bulbs four to six inches deep according to the species. Most lilies enjoy fertile soils, richly supplied with organic matter.

Since most of them prefer cool soils, the planting of ground cover plants over the lily beds is helpful in satisfying this condition. Good drainage is a must for most lily species. There are many superior varieties of lilies on the market today in a great variety of colors and forms. Many of these are hardy for the West area.

No group of plants gives better spring color than the spring flowering bulbs. Tulips, daffodils and hyacinths provide a mainstay for the border.

Tulips are most widely used because they are the hardiest. For bordering, grape-hyacinths, scillas or squills, chionodoxas, and crocuses are unexcelled. Secure large, well-grown bulbs from a reliable source. Plant the bulbs to a depth equivalent to two to three times the diameter of the bulbs.

Those who like the unusual in bulbs may like to try Fritillarias. The crown imperial or Fritillaria imperialis is a striking plant. The plant grows from two to four feet tall. Orange or red flowers are in clusters and are bell-shaped, hanging downward. The plant blooms in April and May. Closely allied is the Guinea-hen flower, Fritillaria meleagris, with its unusually mottled purple, pendant, bell-like flowers.

Fritillaria pudica and Fritillaria atropurpurea are natives of the extreme west. The former is yellow flowered and the latter brown, spotted yellow. They require well drained sites.. Since the flowers of these latter species are rather tiny, they show up best in rock garden plantings with solar post light. If you are not familiar with solar post light, you can ask some landscapers for some information and how to use solar post light.

Bulbs of the crown imperial should be set about six inches deep. The other species can be planted from three to four inches deep. The crown imperial resents competition from other plants, so should be given ample space. Some folks might not like the rather objectionable odor of the flowers of these plants.

One friend of mine has a passion for growing potted bulbs. She loves the ability to have “moving color” wherever she wants it. Here’s some tips from her on how she pots and grows her flowering bulbs.

First of all she uses new pots or one she has scrubbed clean and ran through a 10% bleach solution. But she always first soaks in water until bubbles cease to form before ever potting. In the bottom of each pot she places broken crockery for drainage. Above this she puts a light layer of coarse peat. To within 2 to 3 inches below the rim of the pot, depending on the size of the bulbs, she fills a mixture of 1/3 peat and sand, 2/3 garden soil. After firming this she places the bulbs and adds more of the soil mixture just below the rim of the pot. This she also firms. When finished the nose of the bulbs are visible above the soil. If a little more soil is still needed she adds what is required, firming it nicely.

The pots are then plunged one by one in a bucket of water. When they cease bubbling they are removed and allowed to drain. When drained they are placed in a cool dark place to root. Most bulbs are rooted in the dark but not all. In the light in a cool room she places Paper-white Narcissus, Grand Soleil d’or Narcissus, Hyacinths, Freesias, Anemones and Ranunculus.

Bulbs Favorites for Potted Culture

MUSCARI (Grape Hyacinth)

Heavenly Blue is commonly called Grape Hyacinth. It is a good name too because that is just what they look like. The flowers for all the world resemble inverted miniature bunches of grapes. Plant the bulbs in shoals or “drifts” either large or small, set them in the rockery; grow them by shrubbery and along the walk. They are hardy, will increase rapidly, and may be grown in pots. Height about 9 to 10 inches. The blossoms have a faint musk odor hence the name Muscari. Plant the bulbs 2 inches deep, 2 inches apart.

NARCISSUS

The culture for the Narcissus either in the garden or in pots is the same as for the Daffodil. The entire family of Narcissus lend themselves admirably to naturalizing. Grow them in open woodland, on sunny slopes, in grassy meadows, by the garden pool with floating solar pool lights and along the landscaping walks. Before planting the bulbs in grassy meadows, see to it that the soil is well fertilized, as they must depend for a long time on the food that is in the soil. Do not cut the grass until after the Narcissus foliage has ripened. Plant the bulbs 5 inches deep, 4 inches apart.

Polyanthus Narcissus are NOT hardy. They are mostly grown in pots, fancy bowls and shallow dishes. They blossom in about 6 or 7 weeks and are grown in the light in a cool room. Set them in soil in clay Pots, in bulb fibre in fancy bowls or in pebbles and water in shallow dishes. Paperwhites bear waxy scented white blossoms in bunches. Grand Soleil d’or has a yellow flower with reddish orange cup. It is also scented and produces its flowers in clusters. In flower about a week later than Paperwhite Narcissus, Soleil d’or is a little taller.

Winter injury in herbaceous and woody perennials may be caused by a number of things. One factor is that many of the plants go into winter in a “green” or immature condition. This is caused when plants receive too much moisture during the late part of the season. If it is due to too much rainfall, not much can be done about it, but if artificial watering is practiced, it should be reduced at this season. Hence it is good advice not to overwater perennials too much at this time of the year, so that maturity is encouraged.

This applies as well to deciduous shrubs and trees, and evergreens. The drier period during the fall starts certain chemical changes in the plant so that they are better prepared to stand cold weather when winter sets in. This does not mean that the plants should go into the winter in a very dry condition. At about the time light frosts occur, a thorough watering of all perennial plants will help to put them in better condition for winter survival.

Fall is a good planting season for many herbaceous perennials and a must for the planting of spring flowering bulbs. In the West area, fall planting is questionable for a great number of our deciduous shrubs and trees. If fall planting is done, it should be started as soon as the plants show signs of dormancy. Unless the job is urgent, the average gardener will find it best to wait until spring to do most of his tree and shrub planting. Survival is likely to be much better. Successful fall planting depends on a long fall season, so that plants may establish a good root system before winter sets in.

A number of perennials can be divided and transplanted at this time of the year. Peonies, Oriental poppies, bleeding heart, asparagus and rhubarb are such plants that will benefit from fall transplanting aside from corn plant, especially if the clumps have become crowded, overgrown or weed-ridden. Normally, they do not need frequent dividing unless such conditions exist like in corn plant care.

Although irises are best transplanted around midsummer, this job can be done in the fall. Shasta daisies may also be divided and reset at this time of year.