Do you love the colour purple? - Sep 25, 2014
Dear Gardening Friends,
Our nursery is full of colour at the moment. The African Daisies have arrived! These are sold under various names but they are all Osteospermums.
Growers have now bred superior varieties that don’t self seed and become weeds in your garden. They stay more compact too and they flower throughout the warmer months. Once established they can survive on rain water only in the garden.
The purple flowering one pictured is called Serenity Dark Purple. I do love this colour in the garden. They look great mass planted and they do best in hot sunny positions. If it is too shady the flowers won’t open.
There is also a bright yellow flowering variety called Voltage. This looks spectacular planted beside the dark purple one.
They grow about 45cms high by 70cms wide. These African Daisies grow very fast so they are perfectly suited for impatient gardeners.
If they start to look leggy simply prune them back by around 25%. If you are planting them in the garden use Greengold Planting Compost for best results
Pig’s favourite plant, Pig Face has started in flower. The Orange flowering variety always flowers first then the other colours soon follow.
Pig faces are succulents so they store water in their fleshy leaves during good times so they can survive during the dry times. They are perfectly suited for the gardener who wants flowers but has no intention of ever getting the hose out to water them.
We have at least 10 colours here to choose from and you can buy 4 plants for $20. They will all flower this season. Pig face need full sun and the flowers wont open if it is too shady.
They are almost ground covers so you could plant these along the border and plant African Daisies at the back. Can a garden have too much colour?
I noticed the Spreading Petunias have arrived in punnets on the seedling bench. Lisa always struggles to keep up with the demand for these fast growing, ground cover Petunias.
You only get 3 plants in a punnet but each plant can grow over a metre wide. I took a photo of two plants growing in a garden in Glen Alpine a few years ago.
They had grown almost 2 metres wide and they were covered in so many purple flowers you couldn’t see the foliage. The deep purple flowering variety is my favourite.
I have grown this in big pots for years at my place. You only need to plant one plant per pot. If you plant more you are just wasting your money.
Oasis Spreading Petunias come in red, purple, pink, dark blue, purple and white.
A few years ago while holidaying in Italy I found a huge pot that had been planted up with several colours. It looked so good I had to take a photo so I could show you.
These spreading petunias stay much flatter to the ground than traditional varieties and sometimes they can over winter and sprout again.
Always use Tim’s Best Potting Mix when growing these vigorous Petunias for best results. They will provide you with non stop colour for at least 6 months!
If they ever look tired simply cut them back and then feed with our Tim’s Fast Food Fertiliser.
A former business partner of mine was a non gardener. He had big pots on his patio but he had never had any success growing anything.
We tipped out the old potting mix and planted Red Riding Hood Dipladenias using Tim’s Best Potting Mix. The Dipladenias flowered all year round on his sunny patio with brown thumb care.
He did water them at least once a week and during summer they got watered twice weekly. Dipladenias have been renamed Mandevilleas but they are more like a shrub.
They get beautiful pink, red or white trumpet like flowers. My favourite is still Red Riding Hood. These are so much nicer than Cordylines which have become the Non Gardeners favourite pot plant.
If you are looking for a flowering pot plant that lasts try one of these
Just a reminder if you are putting pots in sunny spots then they need to be big pots!
Potting mix stores the water so the more potting mix a pot holds the more water is available to your plants roots. If you only have little pots (less than 45cms) then you need to plant Cactus or Succulents.
Buy pots that have saucers wherever possible. Saucers catch run off water and allow your outdoor plants to get more water. When pot plants get more water the plants grow better.
The new Dianthus called Memories has been a sales disaster.
Such a shame because it is a great plant and the white carnation like flowers have the most amazing perfume.
$6.00 from the sale of every plant is being donated to Alzheimer’s Australia. ($5.00 by Tim’s plus $1.00 by the grower)
We are wondering if perhaps you are just forgetting about this plant?
Happy Gardening
Tim