Choose Plants That Reseed Themselves for Years of Blooms
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Getting Started with Flower Gardening
Building a Raised Flower Bed Garden
Choosing Flowers
Types of Flower Gardens
Flower Gardening for Pollinators
Growing Flowers in Containers
Spring and Fall Bulbs
Caring for Flowers
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I've had great success with snapdragons self sowing. I have a patch that comes up every year without fail.
I am surprised that you didn’t include zinnias and gaillardia in your list of self seeding annuals. These two cultivars do well and reseed well here in Florida. Maybe they don’t do so well further north.
Hi. I am inundated with gophers and my oak trees have grown to the point of blocking most of the sun in my gardens. Is there anything that I can grow to feed my bees but not the gophers? I live between San Antonio and Houston.
Hi, Pat, Most pollinators, including bees, are drawn or lured to flowers, and most plants that produce flowers do so in some amount of sunlight, whether full or partial or the like. It sounds like you need to prune or trim your oak trees to let in some sunlight.
As for the gophers, we have a few ideas:
• If deer and gophers are a problem in your garden, confuse them with lavender. Grow plants among the roses to muddy the flowers’ aroma, which attracts deer. When planting rose bushes, throw a handful of dried, crushed lavender into the planting hole to thwart gophers.
• You can place natural deterrents around your property to repel gophers. Plants with strong smells such as sage, daffodils, iris, thyme, and geranium will repel them, for example, as will placing fish oil, peppermint oil, coffee grounds, or tabasco sauce on the ground near gopher tunnels. Remember, though, you need sunlight for those plants to thrive.
• You can also install underground fencing: To protect existing plantings, bury hardware cloth or ½- to ¾-inch mesh wire at least 2 feet deep with an additional 6 inches of mesh or wire bent at a 90-degree angle away from the planting. This will help keep gophers from digging around the fencing boundary. Also, extend the fencing at least 1 foot aboveground to deter gophers moving overland. Use galvanized or stainless steel wire to extend the life of the fencing.
• And you can trap or bait.
Start by bringing in some sun, and keep this in mind: If your property borders wildlands, vacant lots, or other areas that serve as a source of gophers, you can expect gophers to reinvade regularly.
We wish we had better news, too.
I’ve had flowering tobacco self sow. They germinate late summer on my Zone 5 garden so I have to be careful not to cultivate where they are, to allow them to develop. The sunny edge of the garden is a good place where they will not be disturbed. They flower in mid- to late Autumn, when almost everything else has gone by. If started early indoors, they would develop and flower sooner, but I like this kind of “October surprise.”
I've had this experience as well, the flowers are huge and beautiful! Definitely recommend planting some of these.
Interesting and good to know. Thank you for the tips
3 years ago in late October, I saw some flowers still blooming in a divider strip between a gas station and a shopping area. It was my first introduction to calendula, but I didn't know what they were. But blooms in late October in New York got my attention, so I pulled some out with roots and planted them in a bare spot in my garden hoping they'd catch. Well, they grew and kept blooming a couple weeks and next spring, I had tons of them coming up. But the roots weren't necessary, I found out. They had seeded themselves from the remaining blooms - not to mention that established plants with roots very, very easily transfer to new areas during a single season. 3 years later, I have tons of them. All season long, through to the first very hard frost, cheery yellow blooms. They even escaped the spot and grew in gravel - no problem for me, but they pull out easily if unwanted in any area. Collect any spent, brown pods from faded blooms and you've got tons of seeds you can put anywhere. Birds eat them right off the flowers and ground, too, but there are so many that they birds can get a snack and you can have your flowers. I have put some in new areas of the garden and I'll do some in pots next year. Super easy, prolific, and endless blooms. From three little gas station plants, now I have hundreds!
I’m in Florida. It would help if zones, and sun or shade was mentioned.
I live in the Raleigh NC area and planted celosia 2 yrs ago and have had enough to share last summer & this summer. My grandson loves them & helps transplant them,