Planting in Summer for Fall

Dany Millikin: What to plant, when, is always a big question people have.

Diane B.: Yeah.

Dany Millikin: Diane Bulanowski is here with us, to tell us, here’s some great things to put in, almost at anytime, right?

Diane B.: Yeah. I love these plants because they’re great for fall, but at the end of summer they really look good.

Dany Millikin: That’s a really hard time to find plants to put in the ground, in the summer.

Diane B.: Exactly. So if you’ve got these in the ground, they are perennials. This is coneflower. It’s a beautiful perennial. Butterflies, bees, birds love it.

Dany Millikin: I always love the way these feel when I touch them.

Diane B.: Yeah.

Dany Millikin: It’s a [inaudible 00:00:38] feel.

Diane B.: I leave the seed pods on for the birds in the fall.

Dany Millikin: Oh yeah, yeah. What about this one? This one’s got a lot of flowers.

Diane B.: That’s good old lantana. But, some people have shied away from lantana because it can get a little wild or big. But this one’s called Lucky. It’s a series we love. They are much smaller, very well-behaved, and lots of great colors.

Dany Millikin: That’s awesome.

Diane B.: Lantanas do great in the heat. They’ll take the cold, a good amount of cold.

Dany Millikin: I have some purple lantana, and butterflies love them.

Diane B.: Oh yeah.

Dany Millikin: What’s this crazy one? it looks like a brain.

Diane B.: That’s celosia, but we call it the brain celosia, and it has a relative that looks more like a paintbrush, but it’s really unique. It’s really easy to grow. People think that it’s hard to grow, but I grew mine from seed one year and was very popular in the neighborhood because-

Dany Millikin: That’s awesome.

Diane B.: Everyone was so impressed.

Dany Millikin: It seems like a flower boys would like.

Diane B.: Yeah, and you talk about how that feels neat. But that feels neat too.

Dany Millikin: These look like peppers. This, I guess it’s just, so much color ornamental pepper.

Diane B.: Ornamental peppers are really neat because they’re peppers. You could eat them, but most people don’t because they, there are a lot of different varieties. There’s ones that has purple leaves. It’s really pretty and we use them a lot in fall, but they take our heat. I’ll start planning them sort of, late summer. These are things that you can use in your garden to get ready for fall, before pansies and violas and cyclamen and the things we usually associate fall with. The iconic croton, that to me, it just signifies fall. The color is fall.

Dany Millikin: Such a unique look, all those stripes.

Diane B.: Yeah, I mean-

Dany Millikin: Beautiful.

Diane B.: There’s a lot of neat varieties. There’s one called Picasso’s Paintbrush. This one, I called Twist. It’s really pretty. The color will change and vary, more red, sometimes more yellows. They are a little bit freeze-

Dany Millikin: Cold-sensitive.

Diane B.: Sensitive.

Dany Millikin: Got you.

Diane B.: So, if it’s under 40 degrees, 38 or so, you need to bring them in the house. But they make a great house plant.

Dany Millikin: They’re beautiful.

Diane B.: Yep.

Dany Millikin: Well, so a lot of great options. There are so many flowers out there, and it’s great to come in a place like this and learn about it. Thanks Diane.

Diane B.: Thanks Dany.

Dany Millikin: More great info on more great flowers, food or trees go to homeshowgardenpros.com.