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Tidewater Gardening: K. Marc Teff eau
TIDEWATER GARDENING
by K. Marc Teffeau, Ph.D.
Fall Vegetables and Sunny Sunflowers
Gardening activities don’t go on vacation in July. If you are a vegetable grower, start your broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seeds in mid-July so you can set them out as fall transplants in August. I have found that it can be difficult to locate fall vegetable transplants in this area, as most greenhouse growers prioritize the spring season. Cool season cold crops like broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower do better in Mid-Shore gardens as fall rather than spring crops. I re-
member cutting broccoli on New Year’s Day when we had a mild fall. Mid- to late July is a good time to direct-seed lettuce, spinach, beets, carrots and turnips into the garden. Since they may be a little slow to germinate because of the hot temperatures, try lowering the soil temperatures by covering the seed bed with a floating row cover such as “re-may” or some other shading material. Succession plantings of green beans can go in until the first of August. Wait until August for the fall planting of peas.
In the annuals department, pinch back snapdragons after blooming to promote a second flush of bloom. If some of your annuals have died, pull them out and add them to the compost pile. You can replant beds with hardy annuals or perennials such as pansies,
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calendulas, globe thistles or sea pinks. Get a second bloom from faded annuals by cutting back to approximately half their height, fertilizing with a liquid fertilizer or ½ cup of 5-10-10 per square yard of planted area and applying a generous layer of mulch. Cut back and fertilize delphinium and phlox to encourage a second show of bloom, and stake tall perennials to keep them from falling over.
If you are one of those adventurous souls who like to keep geraniums over the winter, you can make cuttings in late July to start plants for winter and spring indoor bloom. To get flowers in the winter months, you may need to install some fluorescent tubes over the bench or shelves where you grow your plants. To make cuttings, use the tips of branches about 4 inches long. Cut off the bottom leaves and stick the cuttings about one-third their length in a moist sand-peat mixture. Roots will develop rapidly, and new plants should be ready for potting in about four weeks.
Chrysanthemums should be lightly fertilized every two weeks with a water-soluble fertilizer. To keep plants compact and full of blooms, pinch out new tip growth until eight weeks before they are to bloom, mid-July. For large exhibition mums, allow only one or two shoots to develop. Stake these shoots and remove side buds as they start to develop.
July is the time when your bearded iris should be divided and
replanted. Dig them up carefully and throw out the diseased and borer-infested rhizomes. Separate the rhizomes and dust the cut ends with sulfur to reduce potential rot problems. Plant the iris with the top of the rhizome barely showing above the ground.
You might have a dry, hot location in your yard where the annuals you plant suffer every year. A number of annuals will take to this location and thrive, however. Consider planting annual lantanas, zinnias, portulaca (purslane) and Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifolia) in these spots. There are many colors and forms of lantanas to consider. Some are spreading, which works well for planting boxes and containers. Others are mounded in shape. Color selections range from pink to red and orange.
Zinnias have been an annual flower favorite for many years. Many colors and forms are available. You can prolong the blooming period by regularly “deadheading” to remove the spent flowers. Water these plants early in the day. Because it is a semisucculent garden flower, portulaca tolerates dry weather quite well. It can also be used in hanging baskets and pots. If you want to plant an annual along a sidewalk that gets a lot of sun, these annuals are the best choice. Their flowers are small and come in a wide variety of colors.
If you need taller annuals in the hot and dry spots of your flower bed, try some Mexican sunflowers. These can be a nice alternative to annual sunflowers. Because they grow tall, up to 6 feet, they may need to be staked. Mexican sunflowers have daisy-shaped
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blooms that are bright orange or red with yellow centers.
It’s not too late to direct-seed sunflowers. Many annual sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are well adapted to grow in Maryland gardens. The botanical name, Helianthus, comes from the Greek words helios (“sun”) and anthos (“flower”). The genus Helianthus includes about 60 annual and perennial species, most of which are native to North America. Sunflowers have been used for over a thousand years as ornamental plants and harvested for seeds, oil and dyes.
According to the National Garden Bureau (ngb.org), “Sunflowers originated in the Americas and domestic seeds dating back to 2100 BC have been found in Mexico. Native Americans grew sunflowers as a crop and explorers eventually brought the flowers to Europe in the 1500s. Over the next few centuries, sunflowers became increasingly popular on the European and Asian continent, with Russian farmers growing over 2 million acres in the early 19th century (most of which was used to manufacture sunflower oil). With the recent tragic invasion of Ukraine by Russia, sunflowers have emerged as a powerful symbol of resistance for the Ukrainian people. Ukraine is the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil.
According to a Clemson University Extension publication, “Sunflowers exhibit a physiological condition known as heliotropism. Heliotropism refers to the mechanism in which flowers follow the movement of the sun, from east to west, across the sky. During the nighttime to early AM hours, the flowers will return to face an easterly direction to capture the light of the rising sun once again. As sunflowers become heavy with
seed, they may exhibit less noticeable heliotropism.” Research cited by Wikipedia notes, “This alignment results from heliotropism in an earlier development stage, the young flower stage, before full maturity of flower heads (anthesis). Young sunflowers orient themselves in the direction of the sun. At dawn, the head of the flower faces east and moves west throughout the day. When sunflowers reach full maturity, they no longer follow the sun and continuously face east. Young flowers reorient overnight to face east in anticipation of the morning. Their heliotropic motion is a circadian rhythm, synchronized by the sun, which continues if the sun disappears on cloudy days or if plants are moved to constant light. They are able to regulate their circadian rhythm in response to the blue light emitted by a light source.”
When you mention sunflowers to home gardeners, most folks think of the tall and large-flowered seed types. There are hundreds of varieties of sunflowers for different uses, however. They can be grown for beauty, for pollination services, as cut flowers for arrangements (often pollenfree varieties), as cover crops and in wildlife food plots, to name just a few.
Sunflowers are easy to grow and
do not require a lot of care. They need full sun and are not fussy about soil type and fertility, but they do best in well-drained clay loam and silty clay soils with a pH between 6.0 to 7.0. Once the second set of leaves appears, a slowrelease all-purpose fertilizer can be applied directly to the plants to speed growth and produce larger flowers. Sunflowers also can benefit from applying half the recommended nitrogen during planting and the second half later in the growing season, a technique known as split application.
Sunflowers come in single stem and branching, and pollen and pollen-free varieties. The National Garden Bureau comments that “single stem sunflower varieties are best for high-density plantings and produce consistently beautiful flowers on tall stems. Succession planting will be needed for continuous blooms throughout the season. Branching varieties produce flowers on multiple shorter stems throughout the season, which makes them ideal for all season long.” NGB variety recommendations include ~ Single stem: ProCut® Series, Sunrich™ Series and Vincent® Series; Branching: Autumn Beauty Mix, Soraya (AAS Winner), SunBuzz, Suncredible®, Sunfinity™, SunBelievable.
The National Garden Bureau goes on to note that “sunflowers that produce pollen are a great op-
tion for gardeners focused on supporting pollinators or for those looking for a lower price point. Many modern sunflower varieties are bred to be male sterile, or pollen-free, to help foster extended vase life and a nice, clean appearance.” Recommended varieties include ~ Pollen-free: Moulin Rouge, ProCut Series, Sunbuzz, Sunrich Series and Vincent Series. For Pollen: Soraya (AAS Winner), Ring of Fire (AAS Winner) and Valentine.
So, add some sunflowers to your annual flower plantings this year! Happy Gardening!
Marc Teffeau retired as Director of Research and Regulatory Affairs at the American Nursery and Landscape Association in Washington, D.C. He now lives in Georgia with his wife, Linda.
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