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Easy Keepers for Summer Gardens

© Barbara M. Martin

Please note: Thank you for visiting my Cottage Garden topic and reading my columns, published here from February 1997 through spring 2003! This Cottage Garden column was written by Barbara M. Martin and is Copyrighted by Barbara M. Martin. It may not be altered or copied or published elsewhere in whole or in part without specific permission from the author. I regret I am no longer actively editing or contributing to this suite101.com topic as of mid-2003. Happy Gardening!

Need a few winners for your summer flower garden or mixed border? Looking for a few good "easy keepers" so you can kick back and relax rather than fight the heat struggling with garden? Try a few of these top performers selected among flowers, trees and shrubs for some easy high summer color in your yard -- and let the plants do the work for you!

Spider Flower: self-sown cleome (klee-oh-mee) plants multiply annually in baby pink, cerise pink, hot pink, purply pink, white, and all shades in between.

Snow-on-the-Mountain: The cooling common name for this native annual euphorbia echoes its distinctive and refreshingly crisp "look" which finally appears right about the end of July in a big self-renewing drift.

Glads: Think Mardi Gras! Fabulous rich bursts of color, and best of all these bulbs use just a tiny footprint in the garden so you can pop them in almost anywhere. Plant lots for weeks of continuous bloom. Buy a multi-hued collection of shorter varieties (look for the less expensive mid-sized or garden grade bulbs) for plenty of serendipity. One of my favorites and so easy a child can plant them.

Sunflowers: Look out, summer's here! These flowers hit their stride right about now and the newer varieties offer lots more than one big messy droopy head twelve feet up in the air. Although I kind of like those, too. Have you seen the windowbox varieties? Another one the kids can plant all by themselves. (And so can you!)

Rose of Sharon. It's hot as blazes but these hardy Hibiscus syriacus shrubs bloom their hearts out and the display lasts for weeks. Colors range from a glaring bright white to an almost blue through the gamut of pinks and purples. Some are so fully double that they look like cabbage roses and some have bold "eyes". Sterile (or nearly so) cultivars solve that little reseeding problem, too. Try one, you'll like it!

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