Let's talk weather and fall/winter flowers. I am in Zone 8b which means I can do some flowers for the winter. I am a wannabe gardener which means I absolutely love trying to garden, but I don't always get it right. I keep trying though!
Zone 8b on the coast means that some months of the year you can count on the weather being the same year after year and a few months are well - a wait and see month.
For instance, August is hot hot hot!!! Bank on it!
October is one of those wait and see months. October can be an extension of summer and hot as blazes OR it can be quite lovely and a welcome relief from the heat. Never cold, but you can put on some pants and maybe some sleeves and the mornings and evenings are cool so that the daytime is tolerable. The latter seems to be happening this year. Thank goodness.
Now, November is usually my favorite month as far as what is considered a fall month. It is usually cool enough to wear a scarf and just feel like you are experiencing a fall season.
With all that said, knowing when to plant the fall and winter flowers is a wait and see approach. The summer flowers are usually leggy and just plain tired of doing their job, but it is often too hot to even think about the flowers that will bloom here in the winter.
These are my side wall pots at the end of September. --leggy, tired, less blooms, and hanging to one side after Sally, the devil. They are better than no flowers so they will stay for a while.
I have found success in pansies, dianthus, and lots of green things like dusty miller, lamb's ear, ornamental cabbages, etc.
Let's talk pansies...I almost gave up on them because they just didn't seem to give me the blooms I wanted. They survived but never gave me the blooms I would see in other places. The other places --I often see them in mass plantings at shopping centers from here to Auburn. I wondered what I was doing wrong and then I saw an Instagram post about how they were heavy feeders. I started fertilizing them and was amazed at how they worked for me. I have read that you can do too much and they will get leggy but I didn't see that in my pots.
I wasn't able to plant them until almost November last year because of the heat. I might be able to do them earlier this year. They have not arrived in the stores yet ---just mums. Oh how I love mums but they don't like me. I think mums here in Florida have to be thought of as grocery store flowers...you buy them for the week of blooms and then they are done. Basically I don't fool with them anymore unless I am having a party and need a fall look, then I will go buy them for a display and be done. Nothing says fall like some pretty mums and pumpkins though.
February and March can be those other tricky months. Pansies and Dianthus do not like the heat. They like full sun but not Florida heat and they will whimper out when those temperatures rise. Last year we actually had a beautiful spring and they made it all the way to April which is rare. I usually have to pull them up much earlier and go to the heat loving plants.
I have a variety of things in my yard and always strive for green everywhere. I am satisfied with the beds and lawn after years of trial and error and fighting the zone that I live in. AND speaking of zones and all...I am head over heels in love with a new show called Flip My Florida Yard. Think ---HGTV style but flipping a yard. A new season is coming out soon and most were done in north Florida. I am so excited I can't stand it...ME---excited about a TV show...Last time that happened it was a TV series about the the Astronaut Wives (here and here). I am not a TV fan...hard to reel me in.
I am just about to give up on geraniums --- well not totally, but maybe not so many. I have 8 pots now, so maybe it is time to scale back especially on the back deck. I don't have many plants on the back anymore. I just couldn't keep up with the watering, but I have kept these four outside my kitchen window.
Here they are in all their August and September beat down...
Keeping it real...
Now, onto the most glorious ending day to September. It was amazing and I took Tucker for the day. Other than eating breakfast, lunch, and a nap we stayed outside ALL day yesterday. He wouldn't go in:)
We trimmed some plants, walked, played ball, and played with the dogs ALL day.
In fact, he wouldn't go near the door for fear I would make him go in, so our compromise to get a drink and a snack was for him to stand on the stairs at the back door where Grammie could see him and get us a drink and some strawberries.
I can't say that I blame him, it was the perfect day. I slept good last night.
Now - onto October and making the most of the pretty days. I will have to divide the time today as I have to do some chores.
Hope you can get outside too,
Sandy
