FLOWERS

Geraniums | Dahlias | Petunias | Pansies | Osteospermum 

Geraniums
Geraniums offer the gardener summer long color in the landscape and in containers. They like full sun and moderate feeding with good amounts of water. As the flowers fade, pick off the entire blossom to promote more flowering and reduce the risk of botrytis. To remove the flower stalk, pull it from the stem axis – it will break off cleanly there. 

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Dahlias
Dahlias are another full season bloomer with large tuberous varieties suitable for the garden and smaller dwarf varieties great in containers. These plants should be fed regularly (every two weeks) and the spent blooms should be removed. At the end of the season, the tubers can be dug and saved for growing next year. After the plant has succumbed to frost, cut off the top of the plant about 3 inches from the soil. Dig up the root system and brush the soil off the tubers. Allow the tubers to dry off in a sheltered environment. They should not freeze. After a few weeks, knock off the rest of the soil, divide the tubers if you wish (if you do divide, wait another few days for the wounds to scab over) and store in a bag in a cool, dark, dry place. 

To divide the tubers, each division must have an “eye”. These can be found at the top of the tuber and they provide the growing points for next year’s growth. 

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Petunias
The old days of stringy petunia plants and constant dead-heading seem to over for most petunia varieties. We offer several types of petunia plants: 

• miniflora ‘Fantasy’ series – small flowers on short, mounding plants.
• multiflora ‘Carpet’ & ‘Celebrity’ series – medium flowers on short, mounding plants.
• grandiflora ‘Celebrity’ & ‘Aladdin’ & ‘Candy Pops’ series - large flowers on medium mounding plants. 
• supertunias ‘Supertunia’ & ‘Surfinia’ series – medium flowers on enormous, trailing plants. 
  wave petunias ‘Wave’ series. – small flowers on large, trailing plants. 

All of these varieties are well suited to the landscape, and the last two trailing types are well suited to hanging baskets. When in hanging baskets, however, these petunias need about 1 gallon of water DAILY to perform up to their potential. 

Most of the petunia varieties we offer are “self-cleaning”. This is a relative term, we found – relative to the varieties of old. Some of the petunias still require a touch up here and there to keep looking clean. An obvious exception to that was illustrated in the summer of 2000 with the ‘Wave’ petunias. After a few weeks of full bloom, we had a week or two of cloudy, foggy, drizzly weather that tuned the blossoms in to yuck. Once that weather system passed, however, the plants put on quite a show with new flowers covering the plants. 

If your petunia plant starts sending out long runners that look out of place, simply pinch them off near the base to create a fuller, branching plant. 

Pansies
Pansies continue to be a versatile garden plant all summer here in New Hampshire. With our cool nights most of the summer, they will survive well in the garden until frost, and will bloom again in fall with your help.
To keep pansies at their absolute peak, spent flowers should be picked off all spring and summer. As the weather heats up, the pansy will begin to slow down its flowering and will start to stretch a bit. In midsummer, you can cut back the pansy plant to five or six inches above the soil. Doing so will stimulate branching and a more compact and bushier plant. Around the last week of August, begin feeding the pansy plant with compost-based fertilizer. As the cool weather continues, the pansy will begin blooming again and provide color throughout the fall. 

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Osteospermum
Osteospermum, also known as African Daisies or Cape Daisies, are generally cool weather crops. This makes them suitable for our spring and early summer here in New Hampshire. They also begin blooming again in fall. The handsome foliage creates a nice backdrop for late summer blooming annuals. 

Plant breeders are making advances in bloom time with osteospermums. One example is the new ‘Lemon Symphony’ from the Proven Winner series. This plant will bloom all summer long in our area, providing creamy yellow blooms that cover the plant. 

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