Each spring hundreds of new annual flowers clamor for our attention. How do we decide which has any chance of success in our unique and fickle climate?
With laundry detergent or toothpaste, there’s always Consumer Reports to help us sort out the hype. But with flowers, we have little to guide us. Most are bought on impulse. Too often, by fall’s cleanup, all that remains is a tag and the mystery over what happened to that particular plant.
Large growers distribute glossy catalogs to gardening professionals that put Vogue to shame, so seductive are the photographs of new introductions. These elicit the same plant lust that grips me when I see the real thing in the garden center, where shopping for plants is much like picking out gourmet chocolates – I’ll have one of those and one of those and …
With plants, however, the stakes are higher. Every flower failure is a wasted opportunity. So this year, I have a plan. Plant propagators really do try to communicate their product’s attributes and limitations. If only I can get past the pretty face and read the accompanying label.
So I made a list of everything the sales catalogs claimed were “unfazed by heat and humidity” (translates to withstands extreme heat and overwatering, which every gardener is guilty of from time to time). Plants said to have “phenomenal heat tolerance” and “short of a blowtorch, they scoff at heat” should be up to the hottest Front Range summer.
“Heat- and drought-tolerant” usually indicates a plant that can’t stand up to overwatering. This second list contains plants appropriate for the hottest parts of the garden, where overwatering is less likely.
The lists were quite instructive. They read like a manifest of survivors from year’s past. Heliotrope, a personal favorite that never does well for me, did not make the list. It performs best where summers are cool, which explains why mine always look so miserable. In the future, I vow to resist its vanilla-scented, purplish-blue charms.
I will also resolutely pass up marguerite daisies, although I may try purportedly more heat-tolerant pale yellow Argyranthemum Crème, Midas Gold or near white Vanilla Butterfly. Similarly, nemesias are the perfect choice for mountain and seaside gardens where summers are cool, but not for mine.
The lists don’t explain all my disasters. For example, I can’t keep supposedly easy New Guinea impatiens alive under any circumstance.
Heat-tolerant with regular watering (and the occasional near drowning): amaranth; anagallis; angelonia; arctotis; Asclepias curassivica; celosia; Cleome Linde Armstrong; Convolvulus sabatius; cuphea; Diascia Strawberry Sundae; gomphrena; lobelia, the Laguna series; Lysimachia congestiflora; Melampodium paludosum; mirabilis; Nierembergia Blue Eyes; ornamental peppers; torenia; wax-leaf begonia
Heat- and drought-tolerant (won’t tolerate too much moisture): bracteantha, calandrinia, gazania, helichrysum, lantana nolana, portulaca, sanvitalia, scaveola, Verbena Imagination.
Marcia Tatroe is a garden writer and lecturer. E-mail her at rltaurora@aol.com.
