When Should My Annuals be installed?

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When Should my Annuals  be installed?

After the long winter and the warm spring days approaching, we all want green grass and colorful flowers!  With the mid-west spring weather we have it can be 80 degrees one day and snowing the next! So lets lay out a plan on when you should put in the annuals to have the best chance that they will do well and make your property look the best!
Spring AnnualsWith some winters the fall pansies will carry over and you might not need to do anything.  However, winters like the past one, new pansies will need to be planted.  Normally the first week of March is the earliest that suppliers will get pansies in.  Pansies will do well in the cool temperatures of the spring. In some cases we have planted tulip bulbs in late February and they have come up and bloomed for Spring color.

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Summer Annuals
Summer annuals normally are ready to go in the ground around the first to second week of May. Summer annuals are installed with fertilizer, and a snap shot (a pre-emergent) and a little pine bark mulch.  There are so many different varieties of annuals, normally the more sun the better colors you can get.  In past years inpatients were the flower of choice for shady locations, but have had issues with diseases such as powdery mildew and root rot.  Last year was one of those years that they we just stunted and just never really took off, even with fertilizer! After the annuals have been in the ground and rooted another shot of liquid fertilizer is applied.  Summer annuals can last into October, but the first freeze or heavy frost will knock them out.

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Fall Annuals

 

Fall annuals can be very tricky!  Every Fall we will get at least one phone call that someone walked by a property and was upset when we removed great looking summer flowers (that have grown all summer and are big and full) and are just throwing them away.  With the change in temperatures in the fall those summer plants will not last through the fall season.

 

Mums – Mums are normally planted 2nd week of September before they start to bloom.  They are considered the welcome to fall flower and we all have seen them in a fall arrangement or fall decoration.  Mums will usually last for about three weeks.

 

 

Pansies – Again for normal seasons we would look to plant these in late September to give the summer annuals there full life. with a mild winter pansies will bloom all fall, and on warm days in winter they have the potential as well to bloom. We normally put mixed color ones in but can do a single color such as yellow, purple, or light blue.

 

Fall Bulbs

 

In late November the fall pansies will need to be removed for the spring tulip bulbs to be planted.  With putting the bulbs in late fall it allows them to have their ‘cooling off period” so that as soon as the soil temperature rise back up in the spring they will start to come up.  In a normal spring tulips will bloom the last week of April to the first week of May.  While tulips look nice while they bloom, they are short lived.  The bloom can last from a few days to a week and then you are back to just a stem. There can be a couple of weeks gap between when Summer annuals and tulips are done.
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About the Author:

Chief Executive Officer for Brummel Lawn & Landscape LLC. Nick has a bachelors degree in Horticulture from Northwest Missouri State University. Nick started Brummel Lawn & Landscape LLC while still in college and has grown the business ever since.
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