If you want to create a home with more curb appeal or, simply add color to the side or back property, you have many excellent options with flowering bushes. Depending on the type of bush you choose, you will end up with gorgeous blooms at varying times of year, giving your home a new, fresh, and exciting look. Adding a bush with vibrant red, yellow, or purple blooms will completely transform the appearance of your home, making it more inviting. As you will discover from the information below, flowering blushes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and blooms, all beautiful and many exotically fragrant.
Butterfly Bush
The Butterfly Bush gets its name because it attracts butterflies but it is also known for attracting other creatures to include fritillaries, tortoiseshells, honey bees, and swallowtail, all enjoying the sweet nectar of the blossoms. Officially known as “Buddleia”, there are more than 100 species and cultivars. These bushes are medium to large in size, making them an exceptional choice or forming a hedge, filling in space, or anchoring a perennial bed.
The only downside to the Butterfly Bush is that it is a vigorous and messy grower. In other words, the branches will begin to grow how and where they like so on-going trimming is required. The branches support beautiful lilac-like clusters of flowers, as well as side branches and blossoms. The fragrance of the blooms is sweet and pleasant, especially during the warmest par of the day. These flowers come in a variety of colors such as white, purple, pink, and red.
These bushes have a high tolerance to alkaline soil and air pollution, as well as being pet-free with the exception of the spider might seen during stress or drought. The Butterfly Bush prefers warm sun and well-drained soil. In the spring, a light fertilizer is suggested with deep watering in the summer months. Some of the easier varieties to grow include B. globosa, B. colvtlei, B. alternifolia, and B. asiatica, and to encourage a second blooming, you can prune the Butterfly Bush immediately after the first blossoming is complete.
Lilac Flowering Bushes
The Lilac Bush is a favorite because of the pleasant aroma and magnificent lilac-colored blooms. With proper care, a Lilac Bush can live hundreds of yeas. In addition to more than 1,000 varieties of Lilacs, they also come in a variety of colors, the most common being lilac, purple, pink, and white. The size of the Lilac bush also varies from four to eight feet with some extending upwards to 30 feet.
The blooms appear in the spring but only last a short time. To enhance the appearance of your property while enjoying the blooms and aroma of the Lilac, we recommend you grow early, mid, and late varieties. Although the blooms will die off in about four to six weeks, you are left with a green shrub that is beautiful in its own right. It is important to keep your Lilac flowering bush neatly pruned and trimmed annually for both appearance and health. Allow the bush to remain bushy but not so dense that inner leaves do not receive sunlight or air circulation.
Although Lilac Bushes are relatively hardy, they do have an occasional insect problem such as borers, ants, or aphids. The best solution is an organic insecticidal soap. The more common problem with the Lilac Bush is moles and mice that love to chew on the bark of the stems. For this, you can set a trip to avoid contaminating soil near the bush. Finally, powdery mildew is a common problem. For this, use an organic fungicide two to three times, one week apart as soon as the problem is identified.
Azaleas
Known as “Royalty of the Garden”, Azaleas come in thousands of varieties, each beautiful. Classified as a “species” or “hybrid”, Azaleas are also a very popular type of flowering bush. You will discover a wide selection of colors that include red, pink, orange, purple, white, and yellow, depending on the type of Azalea you purchase. What makes the Azalea so unique is the bloom, which varies dramatically on the different varieties, some one-half inch, some five inches.
The number of petals also depends on the type of Azalea. Single flowers typically have five petals although on rare occasion, you might see six. Hose-in-hose flowers can have up to 12 petals while a double hose-in-hose may have 30 or more. Additionally, Azaleas boast different shaped petals, again, depending on variety. The height of this bush ranges from just under one foot to four feet although there are varieties that grow well over 15 feet tall.
Azaleas generally bloom in the spring while some will bloom as late as September but only lasting one to two weeks. Most Azaleas do best with a high degree of shade, preferring slightly acid soil. You also want to keep moisture around the base of the bush, which can be done by using pine bark, wood chips, or pine needles. The most important aspect of growing Azaleas is good drainage. The best solution is to plant the bush so the root ball is exposed above ground by a few inches with the mulching pushed up around it for protection. He balance is that Azaleas also love moist soil at the roots.
As you can see, flowering bushes are an exciting way to enhance your home and property. Other excellent choices you might consider include:
Flowering Quince - Produces rose-like flowers with a magnificent scarlet bloom in the springtime.
Deutzia - Easy to grow, this flowering bush produces small flowers in the spring, which are usually white.
Dwarf Buckeye - Blossoming in the summer with 12-inch spikes.
Witch Hazel - This flowering bush can grow up to 20 feet, producing yellow, spidery flowers.
Forsythia - Wonderful for lining walls, this bush boasts drooping sprays of yellow flowers.
Hibiscus - Blooming in mid-summer, these flowers are exotic, large, and a purple, rose/pine, or white color.
Hydrangea - This showy bush has magnificent large blossoms in the summer with big blue globe-shaped clusters.
Honeysuckle - With a sweet aroma, the Honeysuckle is a climbing type of bush that is truly gorgeous.
Snowball - Perfect for hedging, high foundations, and screening because of its mature height of 10 to 12 feet, this bush produces white, snowball-shaped flowers with crimson colored foliage in the fall.
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WNY Alive © 2005
All Rights Reserved
Eileen Melgar is an avid gardner and the editor of http://www.wnyalive.com
If you are new to gardening, this article will give you a few tips to help you make your first garden as good as any seasoned gardener. The first thing you should consider for many reasons are what you are going to plant, and where are you going to plant? For obvious reasons, location is important when growing plants that need sun, as is shade when it is required for survival. Try not to plant to close to trees, as trees will compete for water. However, if your plants require little water, than planting around a tree is encouraged.
The next step requires that you prepare your spot for planting. You must remove all grass, weeds, stones, etc. You can either do this buy digging or by using herbicides. When this is done, you can till the garden area and add nutrients like compost, manure, peat or sand to the soil. The way to decide what you need is to look for things like a large content of clay in the soil. If you see it, you need to ad sand, peat and compost. If your soil is too sandy, you’ll need to add compost to give it the necessary nutrients it needs. These additives will also reduce the acidity in the soil, allowing for more of a variety of plants.
Decide on what you want to plant keeping in mind that taller plants should be placed in the rear section of the garden and shorter plants to the front. This holds true for vegetable plants as well. Above all, remember that watering is very important. Plants should be watered every day initially, then every two days for the second week and at least once a week thereafter. This allows for the roots of the plant to take hold and stay strong.
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Spring is creeping in, hallelujah, and it’s time for us to start digging in the dirt. For all of you frustrated gardeners that live in colder climes I bet you can’t wait to start planting your garden beds with flowers, herbs and vegetables. Over the long winter you forget how much you miss those showy blooms and the riot of color a beautiful garden can supply.
If you live up north, there are a variety of ways to cope with the short growing season. Frost, which can happen as late as May or June, delays your plans for planting seeds. With the many quick growing plants this does not pose a problem but with vegetables and ornamentals a little head start is very helpful for healthy, lush plants.
Starting those plants indoors solves the problem of unwelcome frost. Getting an early start indoors will really make a difference for frost intolerant plants. Another benefit of starting seeds indoors is that as soon as the frost danger has passed, you can plant your seedlings into your garden giving you a good extra month of gorgeous blooming flowers.
When starting seeds indoors, you must simulate the same conditions as those planted outside. Your basics for all plant life, whether inside or out, are soil, water and light. The difference is that your indoor seedlings will need a little more attention and each plant will have its own considerations.
Always start with sterilized soil, this is essential. There is a fungus known as Damping-off-Disease that can wipe out your hard work in a matter of days. For some reason the propagation of plants indoors allows just the right conditions for the spores of these fungi to grow rampantly.
You can easily avoid this plight by using sterile soil or a sterile medium. You can use your own soil but it involves a lot of work and may not be worth the effort when commercial mediums are readily available. To use your own soil, you must sterilize it in the oven after sifting out the clumps and debris. Most commercial mediums sometimes referred to as “soil less” are usually a combination of peat moss and vermiculite. When using these mediums make sure it is clearly marked on the bag that they are sterilized.
After deciding the medium that you will use, there are a variety of containers available to start your seeds. I have used flats, peat pots, dixie cups and even egg cartons successfully. As with any plant, the size of the container used is determined by the plant you are growing and only experience can guide you here.
Seedlings require an enormous amount of light, either sunlight or artificial light or a combination of both. If they don’t get sufficient light the plants will get “leggy” or “spindly”, denying them a healthy start on the way to your garden. Even in a bright window with a lot of sun you may still need to use artificial light. If you do need to use artificial light, buy bulbs that are manufactured specifically for that purpose. Even though they are for the singular purpose of growing plants you still must keep them on for at least fourteen (14) hours a day. No artificial light can compensate for the intensity of direct sunlight.
The most important element of growing your seedlings indoors is watching the moisture. They must be kept moist but not soggy. The most advantageous way to water is from the bottom. Set your pots in a tray and pour the water into the tray allowing the pots to soak up all of the water. Never let your pots stand in water as this will cause them to rot. If you have your pots in a very sunny window place them in a tray with gravel. Keep the gravel “watered” just under the pots to keep them from drying out.
When you first start your seedlings cover them tightly with plastic wrap. This helps to maintain warmth and moisture, but be careful to uncover them when they begin to sprout so they don’t smother.
I know you may become anxious in January to start getting ready for planting season but it is important not to start you seeds indoors to early. If they outgrow your pots, you will have to thin them and transplant them to bigger containers. This is not the best scenario. For best results, you want to transplant them once outdoors as soon as they are large and healthy enough to survive. A good rule of thumb to start with is four to six weeks after sowing the seeds, making sure they have at least two sets of leaves. Right before transplanting your thriving seedlings, feed them with a very weak solution of a water soluble fertilizer to give them strength through the transplanting process.
Keep a diary on what has worked for you, since experience is always the best teacher. Experiment a little each year with one or two new flowers, herbs or vegetables, this will add variety and spice to your garden. Go to gardening forums on the internet and join the group, the experiences of others is always helpful and the spirit of community is enjoyable and satisfying.
Happy Planting!
Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.
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Mary Hanna is an aspiring herbalist who lives in Central Florida. This allows her to grow gardens inside and outside year round. She writes eBooks, Software Reviews and Practical Articles on Gardening and Cooking. Please visit her websites at: http://www.GardeningLandscapingTips.com http://www.GardeningOutside.com and http://www.ContainerGardeningSecrets.com or contact her at mailto:mhanna@gardeninglandscapingtips.com