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Ottawa Citizen

The city gardener: For instant colour, just add annuals

At the risk of sounding immodest, springtime is when my garden looks its very best (partly due to years of over-ordering from the Breck's bulb catalogue, and planting way too many bulbs each fall). Starting with snowdrops and crocuses in late March, followed by sequential waves of daffodils and tulips, and ending with giant red Emperor tulips that last through to late June, my front garden in particular looks pretty darn good, if I say so myself. Article content Article content Article content However, a garden that depends on bulbs alone for spring colour faces two drawbacks. One is that even if you plant a wide variety of types, each bloom only lasts for a week or two before fading, leaving conspicuous bare spots. The other is that after the bulb parade ends, you have to put up with dying leaves for the next two or three months if you want to ensure another show-stopping performance next year. Article content The solution is annuals, and you can start planting them as early as mid-April, if the ground is thawed enough. (That rule about never planting anything before Victoria Day is a myth.) Many garden plants we call 'annuals' in Canada are actually perennials in their native lands, so they can put up with a light frost. If there's hard frost in the forecast though, you might want to cover them with a bedsheet or a sheet of plastic and hope for the best. Article content Pansies Article content You'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to love pansies. This pretty little plant comes in yellow, violet-blue, white or a combination of any of these, with or without black 'faces.' They're a great way to add instant colour to window boxes, urns, or the fronts of flowerbeds. I usually buy a whole flat around mid- to late April, and plant them in clumps all through the garden. I plant them about four to six inches apart, which is closer than the experts advise, but it gives you a real show once they start filling in. Article content Article content For the most prolific flowering, plant pansies in full sun and keep them evenly moist. Keep your secateurs (or your fingernails) handy and deadhead them regularly, as often as daily, and they'll reward you with sheets of bloom right through to mid-summer. Article content Also called 'Persian Buttercup' (a misnomer, since they look nothing like buttercups and come from Asia and the Mediterranean, not Persia), ranunculus features thick, almost spherical multi-petalled blooms and comes in a rainbow of colours, sometimes with dark centres. If they like where you planted them — full sun and evenly moist soil — they'll bloom non-stop for up to six weeks.