Flower power!

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Nowadays, you can visit a Philadelphia garden center and find plants for everyone’s taste. There are trees and shrubs, houseplants, annuals, perennials, bulbs, ornamental grass, groundcovers and vines for everyone’s taste. There are many types of gardens, as well as, many categories of blooming plants.

 

The outdoor plants called annuals fill an important niche in gardening. Impatiens, begonias, geraniums, and marigolds are popular annuals. They tend to bloom and bloom all summer with little help from the gardener. Annuals die at the end of summer or when killed by frost. Annuals are great for city gardens. Philadelphia gardeners are using sneakers, paint cans, old bathtubs, cinderblocks, and other unique planters to plant their annuals in.

 

An appealing feature of perennials is their permanence. They re-appear each spring. Even though their tops die back in the fall, their roots survive underground. In addition to being permanent, perennials offer substance, as well as, varying heights and growth habits. Because different perennials bloom at different times during the growing season, a variety can allow you to have a different garden every few weeks. Some popular perennials that bloom in spring are candytuft, alyssum, and creeping phlox. For long summer bloom in unison, I suggest lythrum, coreopsis, coneflower, perovskia. And finally for fall; great bloomers include anemone, asters, and chrysanthemum.

Biennials are plants that fall between the short-lived annuals and the long-lived perennials. They usually have a two-year life span. During the first growing season, a biennial develops a root system and aboveground stems and leaves. The second year it produces flowers and seeds, then dies. Well-known biennials include pansies, foxgloves, hollyhocks and sweet William.

 

The contribution to our gardens and landscapes made by flowering plants that grow from bulbs is enormous. There are all kinds of bulbs for each season and for every kind of garden, even bulbs for indoor blooming as houseplants. Flowering plants from bulbs include daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and

crocus. When planting bulbs, there is no need to be too fussy; just be sure to plant them right side up. If you’re not sure, plant them on their side and you can’t go wrong.

 

Although many people think of flowers as being brightly colored and showy, some blooms are very small and inconspicuous. Most of us admire blooms for their beauty, but the function of a blossom is to make seed. A plant blooms first, and then the bloom produces the seed. Gardeners cultivate many plants primarily for their flowers, but to botanists, a flower bloom is simply a plant’s reproductive unit. Nearly all plants bloom.  Once a plant begins to bloom, you know it is thriving and flourishing; it’s at its peak and in full splendor.  Blooms show the gardener what that plant is really made of, its personality, and its true potential. Some gorgeous blooms include the oriental lily called Stargazer, along with orchids, roses, crocosmia, amaryllis and hydrangea. There are flowering blooms that capture almost every color of a rainbow. 

 

Scientists believe that there are over two hundred and sixty thousand species of plants on earth. Some plants are more functional than beautiful, and some are more beautiful and less functional. Some plants produce food that we need in order to live; some produce lumber, which we use to build

houses; some produce cotton, which we use to make clothing; and others produce substances that are used to make medicine, rubber, perfume, paper, and many other important items we need to live. Some plants have long lives, and some are short lived. Some plants smell good; some have no smell at all; and still others look good and smell bad; yet each has its own purpose.

 

Judging plants by their appearance, like judging people at first glance, could prove to be a mistake. For example, the night-blooming cereus, a climbing cactus with large, fragrant white flowers, can only bloom at night when you can barely see it. Therefore, viewing the plant during the day would not give you any indication of how beautiful the plant really is. The raflessia which is grown in SE Asia is said to have the most beautiful blooms in all of nature and is called the most bizarre and improbable organism on the planet. It’s incredible! With no leaves, no stems, and no roots, this flower lives as a parasite on a vine in the rainforest, and has blooms that are 3-feet wide, the width of a yardstick, and one bloom can weight 24 lbs. Yet, when people visit from all over the world to view it, they can’t even get close to it and must stand back hundreds of feet in order to get a glimpse because it smells like rotten flesh and is pollinated by flies. Although it takes10 long months to develop a bud, it only blooms for 3-4 days; and on the 4^th day, the petals turn to a black slimy mess. Do you know someone who’s beautiful on the outside but they have a stinky attitude? Another example of beauty on the outside and a stench so bad you can barely stand it is the corpse flower. The eye-catching amaryllis gets everybody’s attention, but it is extremely poisonous. And let’s not forget the magnificent and most sought-after, and most popular sweet smelling rose whose stems are covered with sharp thorns.  If you were starving in the wilderness, you couldn’t eat that beautiful rose bush to survive, but you could survive on a field of dandelion weeds.Trying to be a rose if God made you a daisy can be quite problematic.

 

Each plant has its own unique purpose and should be appreciated for what it is.  Just like each person is designed for their own destiny. The Bible says in Psalm 139:14, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” God didn’t use a standard mold to create plant life, just as he didn’t use a mold to create each of us. Yet, too often we shallowly prize others for their attractiveness and showy appearance. We judge people by looking at their outward appearance without knowing anything about the lives that they lead. Just like we shouldn’t buy a plant based only on its outward appearance, we shouldn’t judge people using the same criteria. Plants should be chosen based not only on their beauty, but their potential performance in your specific garden environment.

 

When shopping for your favorite plants and flowers, remember to check the plant tags for planting instructions and plant requirements, as well as, bloom times. Visit your local garden center or flower show, take notes on your favorite blooms, and then do your research before you purchase. Don't plant a rose garden when your environment calls for a cactus garden.  Even the cactus garden is beautiful in texture and color.  To avoid costly mistakes and disappointing results both in your personal life, and in the garden, do your research and choose your plants according to your specific growing environment. And remember, stop trying to be a rose if God made you a daisy!

 

 

 

 

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