Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

1/24/03 - It has been bitter cold around here for the past few days, and forecasters promise no relief. The garden is coated with ice and snow, but, to prevent myself from becoming discouraged, I have only to look at the "Weekly Diary" for last year beginning a month from today, February 22. The week's picture for that date was a tiny clump of Snowdrops, a week later, March 1, the picture was of the first crocus, and on March 8 there is a picture of Daffodils. So if you too have the winter blues, click on "Last Year's Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary" and move ahead a few weeks to see the flowers that will be blooming soon even though it will be still officially winter.
Over the next few weeks, I thought that I would tell you about the new annuals that I am growing under lights in the basement. These flowers are specifically chosen for patio or container gardening, which I am going to do more of while reducing my planting in some of the beds. Sanvitalia, "Orange Sprite," is described as blooming over a long period, and perfect for containers. Its trailing habit offers a profusion of semi-double orange flowers with a dark center. Anagallis: intense blue flowers produced in great profusion from late spring until frost. Its neat compact habit is ideal for containers. Asarina, "Victoria Falls," a fountain of tumbling, cerise-purple trumpets with lime-green contrasting brackets. It cascades naturally out of containers, and blooms from June until frost. Bellis: flowers are slightly larger than normal pom-pom types, on compact, short, strong flower stems that bud up uniformly. The four bright colors all give excellent performance in containers. There are four more that I will tell you about next week. This summer, we will see how closely the resulting flowers match their catalog descriptions.
For this week's picture I have arranged the Christmas Cacti, which are in full bloom, on the glass room table in front of some of the new Geraniums. The Cacti, although spectacular when blooming, are rather untidy plants during the rest of the season. And, since I keep them in the glass room all year, I am going to trim them to a neater appearance when they are finished blooming. I am very happy with the new Geraniums that I grew from seeds. They are all different colors including pink edged with white, shades of orange, and several shades of red from light to dark. They should look spectacular in containers. I will also be able to grow from cuttings as many new plants as I want in the colors that I like best--a good way to go: grow new Geraniums from seeds and then grow additional plants in the colors that you like by cutting slips and rooting them.

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