Archive for March, 2008

Flower Gardening Tips – Knock Out Roses

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Are you familiar with Knock Out roses? These beauties are a real winner for your flower garden. Commonly known as landscape roses, Knock Outs are known for their exceptional flowering season. In the Northern climate these roses bloom from spring into fall but in Southern parts of the country, blooming continues almost an entire year. And, this rose only needs a half a day of sun.

If you are planning to add roses to your flower garden, consider getting Knock Out roses. These come in red or pink blooms with a very nice Tea Rose fragrance. I prefer the red blooming and I find these to be one of the finest landscaping roses ever grown. How do I know? Because I have fourteen red blooming Knock out rose shrubs in my garden and they are absolutely beautiful.

The Knock Out rose was produced by breeder William Radler and it is considered to be the best ever landscape rose by many flower gardeners because these tolerate heat and drought conditions. They are very hardy and disease resistant, do not get those annoying blackspots, and it tolerates Japanese beetles, leafhoppers, rose midege and other pests.

These roses are breathtakingly beautiful with great clusters of 3 1/2-inch blooms. When these roses begin to bloom early in the spring, they continue to bloom for many, many weeks at a time. It then rests for a little while and repeats its blooming season for the remainder of summer and continues into late fall. This rose truly has one of the longest blooming cycles in the rose family. To add more beauty to your flower garden, when the blooms finally end, the color continues with burgundy like fall foliage.

So, if you love roses as much as I do, consider getting the Knock Out. You will be glad you did as it is one of the few roses to be considered maintenance free.

Spring Flower Gardening Tips

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Spring is around the corner and it is time to start thinking about your flower garden. This is my favorite time of the year as I see my flower garden come back to life and watch as the birds that migrated for the winter season return. It is also the time for most gardeners to begin to gather their tools in happy anticipation of their spring flower gardening.

Although most gardeners do enjoy the spring gardening season, just remember that it does require work in order for you to have a beautiful flower garden later in the season. To help you tackle those tasks, here are some tips to make your spring gardening a little easier.

If you planted flowers last fall such as bulbs, you should be delighted to see those come back in full bloom this spring. But, along with those beautiful flowers you will also have weeds. So, weed your flower garden first. Remove dead plant materials from your garden including old winter mulch.

Get your flower garden soil ready once the snow melts (if you live in colder areas) and days start to warm up. Till the soil and keep it moist but not soaking wet. Add compost and peat moss to the soil and let it sit for a day or so before planting anything else in your garden.

Spring is the time to add new plants to your flower garden, so if need be, decide on what additional flowers you want. You can choose from annuals, roses and perennials and the varieties of these are endless. Visit your local nursery to get ideas on the various plants and don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions.

So, enjoy this beautiful spring season as you begin your flower gardening. Remember that you do have many options when it comes to spring gardening and maybe this is the reason why to many gardeners, spring is their favorite time of the year, including yours truly.

Happy spring gardening, Diana