Gardening Basics: Simply Put – Pansy Tough

The National Weather Service is forecasting a colder than usual winter for us this year, with average (or, unable to predict) precipitation. So we’ll see how our hardcore gardeners with Zone Denial do this year. Someday we’ll do an article on hardiness zones, but basically, the system is based on the coldest temperatures reached in winter for a given area, based on historical data. Plants are rated for their ability to survive the winter within a range of zones from 1 to 11, with 11 being tropical/Hawaii and 1 being very cold Alaska/Fairbanks.

In the Maryland suburbs, we are zone 7A, while in the center of DC, it may be 7B or even 8. If a plant is rated “zone 8,” it is unlikely to survive outdoors in winter in, say, Gaithersburg or Leesburg, but it might in DC. If it’s rated Zone 5, if it dies in our area, it won’t be because of temperature.

“Zone Denial” is planting things that are marginally winter hardy in an area and hoping they make it through, by mulching, planting against a south facing wall, praying, and so on. Some years they do, some they don’t. (“It grows in Mexico, maybe it’ll make it here, oh please oh please oh please.”) For the rest of us, we can plant flowers that are cold-temperature tolerant to start with, and, for that, nothing beats pansies.

Pansies flower and look their best in cool weather; that is, in fall and in spring. They may be either fall or spring-planted. They will usually be in bloom when you purchase them, and, If fall-planted, continue flowering into December or later. They stop blooming during the cold of winter, when temperatures are consistently below freezing, but if given some care, the plants will hunker down and survive the cold.

As the days get warmer in March, pansies begin to flower again, and look downright spectacular in April and into May. As the temperatures get hot going into summer, the plants get leggy (stretched) and the flowers get smaller. Flower breeders continue to make pansies more warm-temperature tolerant so they can be planted earlier in the fall and last later in the spring, but in our climate, they generally look so miserable in summer heat that gardeners replace them with summer annuals.

As recent immigrants from Germany in 1930, the Behnkes were used to fall-planting pansies, and promoted the idea here, where the practice was uncommon. Even early on, pansies were an important item for Behnke Nurseries, with tens of thousands of seedlings planted out in the ground or beds for sale in strawberry cartons in the fall.

The primary winter-care requirement is to make sure that the soil is watered if it gets dry. Pansies are shallow-rooted, so a couple of weeks without rain or snow signals the need for water. Same thing for your evergreen shrubs, especially broadleaf evergreens like camellias or rhododendrons. This has to be done when the ground isn’t frozen to do any good, preferably after several warm, sunny days that occur occasionally in winter. A light mulching in late fall will hold moisture in the soil and reduce frost heave. Frost heave occurs when the ground freezes and thaws, and the freezing squeezes rocks and recently planted plants out of the ground.

The other thing you can do for your pansies is reduce desiccation from the wind. “Desiccation” is drying out: you know that winter air has low humidity, causing your skin to dry out. Plants continue to lose moisture to the air, even if the ground is frozen, especially when planted in an exposed location and it’s windy. If they lose too much they reach what is called the “permanent wilting point.” This means they won’t revive even if watered; they’re dead; they’re pushing up daisies.

Snow is the best protection from wind, but if snow is lacking, to reduce the drying power of the wind, you can make a mini-windbreak. Another European and Behnke tradition, is to use leftover Christmas greens. Branches cut from a discarded Christmas tree and laid upon the pansy bed give protection from the wind while letting some light into the plants. If you don’t celebrate Christmas or you have an artificial tree, consider stopping at a Christmas tree lot after Christmas for a post-holiday special. At that point the tree will be cheap or free, as you are saving the lot owner the cost of disposing of the tree.

So: for loads of color in fall, and a repeat performance in spring, plant pansies, keep them watered through the winter, and if necessary, protect them from drying winter winds. And if you want to grow mangoes outdoors, move to Hawaii.

Ornamental cabbage and kale are becoming increasingly popular with gardeners looking for a cool-season ornamental to compliment pansy plantings.

They are at their best in late Fall, and depending on the weather, may look good into the following spring. Round-leaved types are called ornamental cabbage, while lacy-leafed types are called ornamental kale, but in the garden center biz we use the generic term  “ornamental cabbageandkale,” as the culture and uses are the same.

According to Gerald Klingaman of the University of Arkansas, “kale” is the Scot’s version of “cole”, the Roman term for the vegetable, which originated in the Mediterranean area. (Giving us the term “cole crop” for the kale/cabbage/broccoli vegetable group, “cole slaw” and so on).  Kale eventually made its way to Japan, where people selected colorfully-leaved plants for ornamental purposes. Ornamental kales were brought to the United States in 1929 as a result of a USDA-sponsored collecting trip to Japan, and they first appeared in US seed catalogues in 1936. Most selections sold today were bred in Japan, and the Japanese call them “leaf peonies.”

Cool weather is required for good leaf coloration. According to the University of Massachusetts, when night temperatures are below 50 degrees for several nights, the green chlorophyll in the leaves degrades.  This allows the underlying purple, pink and white coloration of the leaves to become more prominent. Two to four weeks of cool weather intensify the colors. Very cold temperatures in winter or heavy snows will tend to shorten their ornamental life. Some years, they look good into April, while other years they are pretty ratty by Christmas.

They are biennials, which means that they have leaves the first season, then form a flower spike in the spring. The yellow-flowered spike is generally considered to be of minor ornamental value, although I have seen some interesting mixed plantings where the flower was striking. Ornamental kale and cabbage are quite attractive when planted in containers in autumn, with pansies and ornamental grasses, or when used en masse in the ground with pansies. Like bulbs, they are less attractive when planted in rows like frilly little soldiers. Or, leave them in the pots for awhile and use them in a “harvest” grouping by the front door, with pumpkins, mums and cornstalks.

Plant them in a sunny spot, in a container or in the ground. When in the ground, they will do best in good soil that drains well (no standing water).  Watch for caterpillars of the white cabbage butterfly. Called loopers, these can be hand-picked or treated with an organic insecticide containing Bacillus thuringiensis, (Bt), a bacterial product.

Edible: it is said that they (“they” in this context being ornamental cabbageandkale, not the loopers) are edible but not tasty. My own rule of thumb is, when something is grown to be used as an Ornamental, not specifically as a Food Crop, then, don’t eat it. You don’t know what’s been applied to it in the growing process. This goes for pansies and other “edible flowers,” too.

Ornamental cabbage and kale are available at our garden centers now. Be sure to watch for it and add it to your fall-color palette!

Simply Put: Annuals

In the horticultural world, there are three major groupings of plants intended for planting outdoors: annuals, perennials and woody plants. The differences blur a little bit because horticulturists are a more relaxed group of people than botanists, who tend to be very serious about this sort of thing. And the garden center strain of horticulturist tends to be so relaxed that we slump.

Just for the record, botanists are the basic science folks. They worry about things like what plants grow on some ledge in Patagonia and who first named them in 1712. Agronomists are applied science folks that work with field crops (wheat, corn, alfalfa) and horticulturists are also applied science folks that work with the small scale stuff—vegetables, fruits, and ornamental (decorative) plants. We’re the frosting on the cake.

So: first. Annuals.

Annuals are plants that are programmed (Mother Nature 3.0) to live their entire lives in one year (an annual life cycle). That is, they start out as a seed, grow, flower, make more seeds to start the next generation and die, all within one year or less. In the garden center, some plants that would live for more than a year in a warmer climate are sold as annuals because they croak when it gets cold (begonias, for example) or hot (pansies). So, for your purposes as a garden center shopper, you get one growing season out of an annual, and if you want to use it again next year, you have to replant.

The primary advantage to annuals is a long blooming season. A petunia planted in May should still be blooming in September. You want to plant something in a shady spot and have flowers all summer? You must plant an annual. When shopping, you will find annuals that flower well in cool weather—they may tolerate some frost–or hot weather, but not both.

When we in the garden center biz are talking about annuals we are talking about Flowers. Although vegetable plants are often annual in behavior, we just call them “vegetables.” Herbs may be annual (basil) or perennial (thyme), but we sell them by use, which is “herbs.” A bonus to you as a customer: people selling annuals (and vegetables) don’t get real hung up on Latin names. So, you can safely walk up to someone and ask for a marigold and not have anyone get snooty about it.

Because they are so colorful and relatively inexpensive to boot, garden centers sell more annuals than anything else–usually as started plants–although many annuals can be started as seed sown directly into the garden. (Some of the newer annuals such as Wave Petunias or Supertunias are grown by specialist growers from cuttings instead of seed.)

Annuals look best when planted in groups for big blocks of color, mixed or as a single variety. Gardening with annuals became popular in the late 1800’s. The practice of planting annuals in flower beds was called “bedding out,” and gave rise to the term “bedding plants” which is still used as a synonym for annuals.

Next time: perennials, woody plants, and biennials.

Have you just returned from vacation and noticed that your flower beds could use a little sprucing up?  At Behnke’s we have a large selection of summer annuals in large pots for you to choose from.

From impatiens and vinca to lantana, wax begonias and Dragon Wing Begonias you will find just what you need. Plus at these  sizes, they will fill up your container gardens instantly!

Now is the BEST time to buy and plant your fall mums. The selection is at its peak and many of the varieties are just now starting to bloom.

Behnkes Signature Mums will bloom for several weeks and many varieties will last until a hard frost.

Add color to your fall landscape with Behnke Signature Mums.