BEV WIELER

It’s April and I’ve walked through my garden checking if bushes are leafing out and watching as each day more color appears on tulips buds. Tiny grape hyacinth flowers seem a much darker purple this year and I’ve clipped a huge bunch of them to place in little glasses placed around the house.

My yard isn’t the only place spring is appearing.

Garden centers are bulging with plants and the color is eye boggling. The best laid flower garden plans are trashed the minute you step into the sea of color.

My first stop at our local garden center seemed to brain wash me. The plan of red geraniums and a spike, with spillers of white petunias seems just boring after I walked into the welcoming humid environment surrounding me.

The warmth reminded me of summer days to come in my own garden.

My eyes jotted from one side of the large area to the other and up and down the tables of vegetation. What colors would I fill the garden with?

I like to use petunias for that quick pop of color out my kitchen window.

Who knew plant breeders could keep coming up with more and more varieties to thrill us. There are the flowers with just one color, flowers splotched with a combination of colors and even petunia flowers with little speckles on them or colors forming stripes or stars. The combinations are endless.

With temperatures to cold to set the plants outside, I decided to go home and rethink the flower bed color scheme. My mind is bouncing all over the color palette just like my eyes did in the garden center.

There are so many petunia varieties to choose from. Some need a bit more care yet others just grow and spread and bloom like crazy as they try to beat the fall freeze with their gift of color. Oh I’m not going to think about that first freeze as I’m currently excited about filling the backyard with color.

Petunias like fertilizer and water. Some need regular dead heading and yet others need to be cut back later in the growing season if they become leggy.

Most of the petunias include care information but if you can’t find it on a plant tag, just enter the variety on the Internet and you can explore how to care for our favorite pop of color in this year’s garden.

Now hmm, should I plant Mardi Gras petunias with yellow and purple swirled across the flowers, or the almost black flowering variety with a yellow petunia tucked in beside it. I could fill the planters with the caramel colored petunias that would look great with a Red Rooster grass.

The summer view out my kitchen window will reveal the answer to my garden color scheme. I hope you too have fun with the color palette available in garden centers.