could not find where to post this. I have the task to trying to prepare my mother's flower beds with perennials and can work on that over the winter, as i understand this is not a good time to plant perennial flowers. for now, bed up against the house she has a 25'bed 2' wide with mist sprinklers on auto irrigation system. she is in zone 4 area. at the edge of the bed, which buts up against her law, she has a row of purple and white alyssum which she just loves. but the rest is very sad looking lavatera and petunias. she is so frustrated because it looks terrible and she (88 in early stages of dementia) cannot do anything about it. to try to keep her calm at least until end of summer, we can pull these awful flowers out except for the alyssum and put in some perennials or something that will tide her over until the spring. can anyone suggest some annual or perennial which we could plant now (that is if we can get it at the greenhouses) that will survive the transplant at this time of year. i know this is a huge task but maybe someone else has been in a similar situation. unfortunately i do not live in her town and cannot visit and do this for her, else i would.
When is the normal date of first frost in her area? There shouldn't be problem planting perennials at this time of the year as long as they have a month or so of warmer weather to get established before they go dormant for the winter. Spring is not the optimal time for planting perennials but planting them in the late summer or fall is a great way to get a jump start on the next spring. The plants establish their roots, even thru the winter months and are really ready to grow and bloom come spring and summer. On some perennials you might not get many, if any, blooms before frost, so annuals will add instant color for the rest of the growing season while the perennials are getting established. Some annuals will reseed themselves and come back in the spring so that would be a benefit. If you can not find anything locally, go online to places like Burpee, Springhill Nursery, Wayside Gardens, etc. They all have fall shipping for zone 4 that would most likely be early to mid-Sept. and have a larger selection than most nurserys do. Go on-line to some of these places and look at what they have that will grow in her zone, then you can make some choices.
toni my mom can get frost as early as late October. funny i always thought the spring was the time to plant perennials. i had better get on my horse and decide what i am going to choose. thanks for the info
