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The black Hollyhock

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A couple of years ago I started growing black Hollyhocks in my garden. I suppose they are more of an extremely dark burgundy, but they are called black.

Nothing much happened for the first two years that I grew them. They grew but didn’t produce flowers. I suppose they must have sprouted a new plant or two somehow though, as the two clumps of black hollyhocks that I’ve been growing finally decided to bloom last year.

Hollyhocks are biennial plants. That means that they usually only grow green leaves in the first year, and do not produce any flowers. In their second year they often bloom profusely. If you grow plants that are biennial you should plant new plants two or more years in a row so that you can have some bloom from some of them each year.

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Annual and Perennial Baby’s breath

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Baby’s Breath – is it an annual or a perennial? Well the answer is that it’s both. There are annual varieties as well as perennials varieties.

If you live in zone 6 or lower and you’d like to grow baby’s breath in a container it’s probably best to grow the annual variety.

The perennial variety of Baby’s breath must have perfect drainage. It’s has deep brittle roots which will make it difficult to grow in anything but a tub if you weren’t planning on growing it in a garden bed. The perennial variety can be counted on to bloom once during the summer, but if it’s a good season it might rebloom once.

Annual baby’s breath on the other hand will bloom over a much longer season.

I must admit that I haven’t had much luck growing either annual or perennial baby’s breath. My other plants always seem to crowd it out. I think I’ll try to look for the perfect spot to grow perhaps a combination of annual and perennial baby’s breath. That way, if I’m finally successful, I’ll have lots of baby’s breath blooms to use in my flower vases. Well if I ever cut fresh flowers, but that’s another story …

Think about Perennial Geraniums

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I think that most gardeners end up buying annual geraniums for their flower pots, baskets and window box planters each year, or it’s similar counter part the Pelargonium.

However, have you ever thought about planting some of the lovely perennial geraniums? They make great garden plants, many of which bloom several times each season. There is a wide variety of perennial geraniums to choose from.

Johnson’s Blue is one of the most popular of the perennial geraniums and I must admit that I grow this geranium myself. I love it’s delicate iridescent blue flowers. It’s just gorgeous when photographed in the right light setting too.

Other perennial geraniums that you might want to try include “Claridge Druce”, “Wargrave Pink”, “Ballerina”, “Biokovo” and Splish Splash. These varieties are often sold as small plants in nurseries, however you might be able to purchase seeds for these geraniums from Thompson and Morgan.

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