A word to the wise. Divide your Shasta Daisy before it gets this big!

The biggest thing to divide and transplant was the Shasta Daisy. For the record, a Shasta Daisy that is a couple feet wide is really heavy and not all that easy to move by yourself.  And splitting it is no easy task either; the root ball was pretty dense.

I guess I tend to be more symmetric by nature when I envision things. The plan was to have five spring/summer blooming perennials across the back of the flower bed (2 day lilies on the outside, 2 shastas inside that and the peony in the middle), with a couple fall bloomers (my asters) in the front next to the spring flowering bulbs.  The best laid plans….With the daisy being as big as it was, I ended up going with Doug’s suggestion and dividing it in thirds. When I dug up my asters, one of them decided it should be two. A little Myke’s, a little Miracle Gro Plant starter, some really big holes, some crushed leaves for mulch and the garden is good to go. (A side note: When transplanting Shasta Daisies or Asters, think wide more than deep. They have a lot of fine roots that need to be spread out.)

It may not have been exactly like the vision but I achieved my goal. I will be able to see all my beautiful flowers as they bloom with none being blocked from view by another over-sized plant. I can’t wait to see the results next spring.

Until next time…

Mary Gold

Yes, you read correctly. As the rain started coming down a couple weeks ago, I was out in my front yard planting my Sub Zero pansies. After listening to the Flowerland Show that morning, I kind of diddle around till I noticed it was starting to cloud up. Normally I would have found something else to do inside where it was dry. But my daughter and I had bought our pansies (she picked out blue ones – her favorite color – while I picked out purple pansies) a week prior and George Lessens was predicting cold temps and frost advisories. They need to get in the ground.

My daughter (she wanted to “help”) and I had just decided on our “color scheme,” cleaned out the flowerbed and planted our first pansy when it started to rain. My “helper” wasn’t crazy about this getting rained on thing so she went back in the house and hung out with daddy. Me? I kept going; I was on a mission to get those pansies planted.

While my husband and probably most of my neighbors thought I was nuts, my friends at Flowerland tell me planting flowers in the rain can actually help your plants get established and take root. (When I say rain, I’m not talking thunder and lightning or sheets of rain.) Unfortunately, we’ve all conditioned ourselves to think that it has to be sunny and “the right temperature” in order to plant things. While it may be dryer and more comfortable, I guess planting in “perfect weather” isn’t that necessary because my pansies look great. And because they are cold tolerant, they should survive the winter and come back next spring with my tulips.

Until next time…Get outside and enjoy this most excellent gardening weather!

Mary Gold

A couple years ago, I decided to add some perennials to my flower bed including two asters. Mind you, I knew nothing about asters other than they looked really cool in the picture plus the lady standing next to me said they were a great fall plant.

And they are a great fall plant. They are similar to the mum and bloom from about mid-September through mid-October. They add a splash of color when so many of our other perennials are gearing up for winter hibernation.

The first year they bloomed beautifully. The next fall, not so much. They were leggy and what few buds there were didn’t really pop.  It seems you have to pinch asters back to six inches tall until early July. (The really dumb part is that second summer Mr. Green Thumb did a segment – which I saw – on the importance of pinching your asters.) Plus you are supposed to fertilize them regularly throughout the summer and keep them watered (they like moist but well-drained soil).  After they are done blooming toward the end of October, you cut them back almost to the ground and cover with a little mulch.

Lesson learned. This summer, I “followed directions” and was rewarded. My only concern now is moving them after they are done blooming so they don’t get squished by what is now my really big Shasta Daisy.

Time to get outside and enjoy the garden while we still can!

Until next time….

Mary Gold