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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 …






Use your gardening downtime wisely

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How are you keeping yourself busy this month? Have you been spending time thinking about your garden? Reading gardening magazines and books? If you’re like me you probably have a number of seed and plant related catalogues to read. I think mine started being delivered in the mail from late November onward.

It’s too cold to go outside and do anything in the garden – other than shovel the snow that is.

If you want to have a great garden this season, you’ll find that thinking and planning are the two best things that you can be doing during these cold months. Use your garden downtime well.

If you’re like me you probably took some photos of your garden as the plants grew and filled in last season. You might have even made some notes- move this plant over here – it’s not getting enough sun, or it’s getting too much sun. Divide this plant and replant a cluster of them over here and so on.

Try to remember which of your plants did well and which ones didn’t last year. Have any of them been struggling for a few years? Is it time to move them or replace them?

As you flip through the gardening magazines and catalogues make notes of which plants, flowers and bulbs you’d like to try in your garden. Even if you aren’t purchasing them now, or perhaps you’d rather try them by seed rather than as a seeding – keep track of what you like. Then as the time comes to purchase the plants or seeds you’ll have a nice list that you can go over and pick from as you buy your new plants.

I’ve been using this site to keep track of which plants did well last year. Oddly enough, anytime I wrote about a plant not doing well and threatened to remove it if it didn’t start performing soon, amazingly enough it did start shaping up! Why I have no idea – did I actually give it a bit more attention since I was trying to figure out what it’s problem was, or did my threats work? Either way, I’ll be giving some of my plants some verbal threats next year – just in case.

Here’s a few great gardening books to keep you busy over the winter months:

Perennials for Every Purpose: Choose the Right Plants for Your Conditions, Your Garden, and Your Taste (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book)

This is an excellent book. I’ve got a copy of it and it keeps me busy for hours!

The Big Book of Flower Gardening: A Guide to Growing Beautiful Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Rose

Another excellent book that I own. There are some great gardening tips in this book.

Annuals for Every Purpose: Choose the Right Plants for Your Conditions, Your Garden, and Your Taste (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book)

I don’t have a copy of this book … yet, but it’s on my list!

Zinnias still a hot flower in 2007

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Just like the world of fashion, the gardening world has it’s stars and it’s hasbeens. I’m not sure which plants are old news for 2007 but I do know that Zinnias are still going to be quite popular.

profusionzinia.jpg New Profusion Zinnias are making heads turn. Profusion Fire and Profusion Apricot (which is now going to be called Profusion Deep Apricot) are two popular Zinnias that you might want to try to get your hands on this spring.

The Profusion Deep Apricot Zinnia has a richer apricot color that will sizzle in the summer garden.

Other new profusion Zinnias that will be coming out this spring are the Profusion Coral Pink. It’s more pink than coral but it’s name suits it.

Profusion Double Cherry is a double petaled cherry red.

The profusion knee high zinnias are available in red and white and they’ll knock your socks off. They’re close to 20 inches in height, with a more open look to the flower. These knee high Zinnias should look fantastic with Salvias and verbenas or even ornamental grasses such as Hameln dwarf fountain or Purple fountain.

Profusion Zinnias are easy care. Just select a sunny well draining site. They are apparently quite drought tolerant. Give them a light dose of fertilizer every four to six weeks throughout the growing season.

Learn more about growing Zinnias and other plants with this Master Gardeners Guide

Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History

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