Patience is a virtue with annuals

By MIKE DIXON

Special to The Capital-Journal

If Alan Stevens had his way, our spring garden centers would be filled with row after row of green plants without a single flower bud or flower, and we would not be able to tell one color of petunia or geranium from another without looking at a label.

If you ask him, that is exactly what he will tell you. And he repeats his message every fall when, as K-State's foremost specialist in floriculture and ornamental horticulture, he lectures a new crop of Extension Master Gardeners on how we should chose new plants for our gardens.

Stevens, who managed a commercial growing operation before he became a K-State associate professor of horticulture, has some advice that seems well worth reviewing as we head into the spring gardening season.

Stevens says that when purchasing annuals, we should always look for short, compact plants that are well-branched and have neither flowers nor flower buds. The most important of these criteria, he says, is that of being well-branched. Plants spend a lot of energy creating branches, and those that are well branched at the time of purchase spend far less time filling in solid and, therefore, provide maximum color much sooner.

When we buy annuals that are already in flower, we actually create a handicap, says Stevens. As soon as our young plants are transferred to our gardens, and before they do anything else, they need to grow roots and fill out their branching structures. At this time, flowers are the last thing plants need. The problem is that flowers direct the majority of a plant's energies to making seed, which is counterproductive to a plant's need to take root and fill out. The instant gratification of flowers at planting may greatly delay the full, glorious bloom we seek from our flower beds.

Unfortunately, he said, people resist buying plants not in flower. As a compromise, he suggests people buy and plant flowers, and, after enjoying them for a day or two, pinch off all the buds so the plants can turn their energies to growth.

Switching to the subject of perennials, Stevens said the plants to look for are the ones that are well developed, with large, thick divisions. With perennials, bigger is better. There is a problem with this, however, for perennials typically come in many different sizes, and buying the biggest can be costly.

Stevens suggests we determine what size perennials to purchase by considering the rate of growth of the plants in question. If the garden store has two different sizes of a particular perennial, he recommends we ask a knowledgeable employee how long it would take for the smaller one to get as big as the larger. If this turns out to be two or more years, the larger plant is the more cost effective.

In the case of bulbs, says Stevens, the criterion is always the same. For every kind of bulb, bigger is better.

When it comes to spacing, annuals and perennials should be treated quite differently. With annuals, there is a tradeoff between how much you want to spend and how long it will take to get the best presentation from your planting. The closer you plant annuals, the sooner they will grow together and provide maximum floriferousness. But, the closer you plant them, the higher your cost will be. You must weigh how large your plants will eventually become as well as how long you are willing to wait for them to fill in.

With perennials, the closer you plant them, the more likely you are to crowd them. People often plant perennials with the idea that they take less labor to manage than annuals. But, perennials continue to grow and expand year after year, and crowded perennials will need to be separated much sooner than those planted with the proper spacing. Stevens estimates that, over a 10-year period, perennials that have been planted too close will actually take more labor than annuals.

Mike Dixon of Topeka is a master gardener in the K-State Research and Extension program. Gardening questions may be called in to the Master Gardener Response Line on weekday afternoons at 357-GROW.

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