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Three

WHEN TO PLANT: FOLLOWING MOTHER NATURE’S CALENDAR

When it comes to hardy annual gardening, nothing has a greater impact on success than the timing of planting. With dismal results, many of us have been planting hardy annuals just at the very time when most of them should be bursting into bloom. I think the confusion around when to plant is deeply rooted in the word “annual,” because we commonly associate it with flowers we plant in spring to bloom through the summer – the tender annuals. How did we lose our understanding of hardy annual flowers and when they should be planted?

One of the most fragrant and beautiful sweet peas – ‘High Scent’.

A Rekindled Concept

It used to be common practice to include hardy annuals in the garden. In the 1950s, most homes had a vegetable garden out of necessity. The mother of the house usually tended the garden and she often indulged her fancy for flowers as well. This close connection had the gardeners so in tune with the garden that they planted and reaped in almost every season.

A favorite on our farm for its large blossoms, sweet pea ‘Geranium Pink’.

On the kitchen bookshelf next to the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, you would find the Better Homes and Gardens Garden Book (published 1951). Both were homemaking staples of the day. The garden book featured advice on planting hardy annuals in the fall, winter and early spring. Obviously, the cool-season planting I describe is not a new concept at all – it is merely being rekindled.

This strong tradition of a home garden diminished over the intervening decades as supermarkets began offering more and more fresh vegetables, making it unnecessary to “grow your own.” Lost along with the homegrown vegetables was that little flower garden and our knowledge of how to grow and tend it.

Today, with the revival of the home garden, hardy annuals are beginning to show up again in landscapes. They are rejoining the vegetable garden and the cutting garden. The romance of these old-fashioned favorites stirs the memories of yesteryear.

Over the years, when I brought my sweet peas to sell at a local farmer’s market, I knew exactly what to expect. It never failed that a customer would come along and lift one of our sweetie bouquets to her nose. She would close her eyes, breathing in the fragrance, and say, “Ahh…my grandmother always grew sweet peas. I haven’t thought of that fence of flowers or that fragrance in years!”

So while new to us, planting in what might seem like an awkward season is really just a discovery of something old made new again.

Planting Time Options

There are hardy annuals suitable to plant in every garden, each with its own set of rewards. Gardeners just have to find where their gardens fit the cycle. Those gardening in the lower half of the 48 states enjoy the most flexibility in planting times, while those in the north, with colder winters and cooler summers, benefit from blooms lingering longer into summer.

When you plant will depend on where your garden in located on the hardiness zone map. To learn what “planting time” options you have, first find where your garden falls on the hardiness zone map found on page 138. The next necessary step is to find the expected first frost date in fall and the last frost date in spring for your area. The local Cooperative Extension office will be able to provide this information.* Once armed with the hardiness zone and expected frost dates, you can easily make a plan and mark a calendar with your fall, winter, and/or spring “planting time” options.

Planting window timelines:

• Fall planting is 6-8 weeks before your first frost date.

• Winter planting is when ground is not frozen.

• Early spring planting is 6-8 weeks before your last frost date.

*To locate the Cooperative Extension office near you, visit http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/

Sweet Peas

A great way to get started is to choose flowers that are winter hardy in your winter hardiness zone. Chapter 5, “Flower-by-Flower,” includes the winter hardiness for each flower. So, once you know your hardiness zone, you can flip through and find flowers that will survive with as little fanfare as possible in your zone.

Marking the Calendar

The process of incorporating hardy annuals into my garden became much clearer when I notated all the key dates on our family’s day-to-day calendar, the one I look at every single day. Because the seed-starting and planting are at non-traditional gardening times, I needed a reminder while I was retraining my automatic gardening memory. Seeing when to do what at a glance really helped.

Helpful dates to mark:

• First frost in fall

• Last frost in spring

• Count back 8 weeks from both of these dates to find planting dates.

• Count back from planting dates for indoor seed starting dates.

Fall

The optimal time for fall planting is 6-8 weeks before your first frost date. Treat this time frame as a guide, not an absolute. I have fudged by a few weeks both early and late with great success. As summer moves into fall and then into winter, growing conditions are ideal for planting seeds and transplants: nighttime temperatures start to fall, the days are not heating up as intensely, and rain comes more frequently.

Sweet William ‘Sweet” is amongst the very first bloomers in our spring garden.

The timeline you set up for getting started will depend on whether you are planting seeds directly in the garden or starting seeds indoors to plant transplants. The preferred method of seed starting is listed for each flower in Chapter 5.

Planting seeds directly in the garden. This method requires advance planning in order to have the necessary seeds on hand at the proper planting time. Growing conditions are excellent for sprouting hardy annual seeds in the garden in fall. Planting while the days are still warm speeds germination. If seeds are planted later and do not receive the necessary warmth to trigger sprouting in fall, they will lie dormant until those conditions are favorable again. The drawback to this method is that your plants will not have spent the winter developing the beneficial strong root system. To make matters worse, cool-season weeds will quickly fill in where there are no plants. Ideally, the goal is to plant the seeds with enough time for them to sprout and grow into a small plant, so they can be mulched and then put to bed for the winter.

‘Rocket’ snapdragons are the hardiest and are the last snap variety to start to bloom in my garden.

Starting seeds indoors. You will need to start early enough to have a suitable-size plant at the proper planting time. The time lapse from planting a seed to a suitable plant size varies between varieties. Because I prefer to have a larger transplant going into winter, I start all seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before the planting time outdoors, except where I have noted on specific flowers. The window for getting seeds started indoors for fall planting puts the task right in the heat of summer – when it is a treat to have an indoor gardening project!

Go with fall if possible!

What I have experienced and heard from other growers is that whenever you have the option to plant hardy annuals in the fall versus early spring, go with fall. The strength and quality of young plants that have spent all winter building a deep and strong root system are unrivaled by their counterparts planted in early spring. The carefree nature of these well-established plants requires little (if any) intervention from the gardener. Coupled with pleasant planting conditions in the fall, this creates a win-win situation for the gardener.

While I plant many in the fall, I also repeat that same planting in very early spring in an effort to extend our season of bloom. This spring planting will typically begin to bloom when the fall planting of the same flower starts into its decline. What I have learned from this is that the fall-planted plants bloom earlier, produce more and taller stems, and continue blooming longer into the heat and humidity of summer. The early spring planting is certainly a worthy garden member; it just stars a little later and doesn’t perform to the level of a fall planting. So, choose fall planting if it is an option – the benefits are many.

Winter

Winter planting is an option in frost-free regions of the Deep South or in gardens where the ground doesn’t freeze in winter. The way to succeed with winter planting is to prepare the soil in the fall and have it ready and waiting for planting time. One of the benefits of winter for the hardy annuals is the consistent moisture – but this constant moisture is also what makes it next to impossible to prepare soil in winter. I like to prepare the area in fall and then cover with mulch to prevent winter weeds and to keep the soil temperature more stable. When it is time to plant during winter, I pull back the mulch to plant seeds directly, or plant transplants right through the mulch.

A bed of love-in-a-mist ready to burst into bloom.

Planting seeds directly in the garden. Seeds planted in the dead of winter will most often lie dormant until spring. If you do this, I would pay close attention to marking this planting with plant markers to stir your memory come spring, when they will sprout amongst all the spring weeds.

Starting seeds indoors. This can be done any time for later transplant in the garden. Providing added protection, like a row cover, will enhance winter growth both above and below ground level.

Early Spring

The optimum time for early spring planting is 6-8 weeks before your last frost date. In early spring, hardy annuals are the seeds and plants to lay our hands on when we have the itch to garden. We can turn to this family of plants as the gardening catalogs begin to arrive, tempting us to bolt outdoors and plant.

Early spring is the time to plant those flowers that are not winter hardy in your zone – you simply plant them in early spring after the worst of winter has passed. I plant all the flowers that won’t survive our winters and many of the same ones I planted in fall, in an effort to extend their bloom time. For best results and because of those early spring showers, it is necessary to prepare the soil the previous fall for an early spring planting. It can be nearly impossible to find a window of dry soil conditions during spring.

Engaging your garden in early spring can be an exciting time. Exploring among your plantings old and new will reveal surprises you never imagined.

The timeline you set up for getting started will depend on whether you are planting seeds directly in the garden or starting seeds indoors to plant transplants. See Chapter 5 for the preferred method of seed starting for your flowers.

Planting seeds directly in the garden. Seed planting in early spring is so rewarding! Warming temperatures and frequent rains result in quick germination. Unfortunately, the unwanted weeds appreciate those very same conditions so they too are on the fast track to sprouting and growing. See Chapter 6 for how to prevent weeds from becoming a problem when planting seeds directly in the garden. I cover all of our new plantings with a row cover for 2-3 weeks to provide added protection from the elements. I find row cover especially valuable in early spring to protect from strong winds and an increasing population of hungry birds present in the garden eager for seeds.

Feverfew

Starting seeds indoors. While still in the deep throes of winter, this is a restorative gardening job that many enjoy immensely. To have seeds sprouting and growing indoors during the short days of winter really brings spring anticipation on in a new way. It’s fun to start seeds during or just following the holidays, but unless you plan ahead, you may find yourself without the seeds you need on hand for this early task.

It’s a good idea to order all your seeds in fall or early winter. You don’t want to have to delay your seed starting for lack of seeds. When spring arrives, you will only reap the benefits of a well-established plant if you have started your seeds at the right time. (Seed ordering is a helpful date to mark on the calendar.) While the growth rate varies between varieties, 6-8 weeks before the planting outdoor date is a good guide to start seeds. Having bigger transplants is not as critical in spring, because plants will grow more rapidly than their fall and winter counterparts when planted in the garden at that time.