Cool-season annuals are a great way to get a pop of color earlier, attract pollinators, and have a more robust plant. They can be started in the fall or early spring and bloom several weeks or months before heat-loving flowers. Lisa Mason Ziegler, a flower farmer, author, and teacher, is my guest for this week to give a primer on how to plant and grow these flowers successfully.
Lisa founded The Gardener’s Workshop, a company that offers seeds, supplies, and courses online. She is also the author of Vegetables Love Flowers: Companion Planting for Beauty and Bounty and “Cool Flowers: How To Grow and Enjoy Long Blooming Hardy Annual Flowers Using Cool Weather Techniques.” Lisa has been growing flowers in USDA hardiness zones 7B and 8A for over 25 years, and she is willing to share what she’s learned
Lisa shares her list of cool season annuals and their hardiness zones to help you decide when to plant them in your zone. An annual that is winter-hardy in your area can be grown either in the fall or early spring. It can be planted early in the spring if it is not winter-hardy. Find this helpful sheet at joegardener.com/coolflowers.
Before continuing with my conversation with Lisa, I will be publishing a book next month. Pre-orders are now available for “Vegetable Gardening: Your Complete Guide to Growing an Edible Organic Garden from Seed to Harvest.” This book is full of new information and insider tips that will help you improve your gardening skills and overcome challenges.
Organic Vegetable Gardening, my new Online Gardening Academy (TM) Premium Course, is scheduled for release in 2023. Register for the waitlist.
A Chance Not to be Missed
Many gardeners think that the vegetable gardening season ends when summer is over. This couldn’t possibly be farther from the truth. It’s a mistake to neglect fall crops in a cool-season garden. The same is true when it comes to gardening flowers. Planting cool-season plants now will allow you to enjoy them this fall and into the winter.
The best time to plant cool-season annuals varies depending on where you live. Lisa explains that it’s all down to where you live. “We have different times for different regions.”
In the fall, many growers can plant baby plants that will survive the winter and produce the easiest-to-care-for flowers in spring.
Lisa says, “It’s a scary experience to plant a small plant outdoors just as winter is coming.” She explains, however, that her flower farm was launched in 1998 with cool-season perennials. She also stressed that it was simple. She says, “I wasn’t even a gardener when I began.” “I achieved great results with minimal effort, just because I had the timing right.”
Winter Changes to Fall Planting
Lisa jokingly jokes that Steve gave her a garden as a gift when they married. She turned the park into a floral farm, based on advice from Lynn Byczynski’s renowned “the Flower Farmer.” This book was a great source of inspiration, and Lisa credits Lynn for planting the seeds for many farmers in the cut-flower industry.
Lisa had already finished “The Flower Farm” in August and was eager to get started. The book suggested snapdragons for fall planting, sweet peas, and Sweet William.
Lisa was also new to seed-starting. She read books by Eliot Coleman, a market gardener. In them, she learned about soil blocks. This method starts seeds using compressed soil mix instead of seed starter mix in pots. She claims to be an “overnight seed starter” after growing snapdragons in soil blocks, sweet peas, and sweet William. Depending on which flower she grew, she transplanted them into the garden between three and five weeks after that.
Lisa says, “The best part about fall planting these flowers is that it makes winter much more pleasant for you.” You don’t have to look out the window when you wake up. Instead, you wonder, “I wonder if the flowers are still alive,” instead of staying in bed and not looking outside. She says, “I wonder if they are still alive.” You are looking out the window. You wear your coat to go out when you wouldn’t normally. To look at the frozen plants.
Despite not knowing anything, she had a beautiful garden the spring after. This ignited a passion in her, and she began to search for other flowers she could grow the same way. She still uses this method today.
Different seeds require different germination techniques. Lisa follows the instructions of her seed.
Lisa: “Some people will say, ‘Oh well, I’ll just direct sow everything.'” You can, but it’s unlikely you will have much success.
She does not direct sow in the spring or summer. She does not direct sow in the spring or summer because of heat and weed pressure.
Lisa explains, “There are some seeds that I directly sow, but I also plant a large number of transplants from soil blocks.” She starts seeds almost all year round. The shorter growing season in the North limits the indoor seed-starting window, but it still provides ample opportunities for succession planting.
Lisa believes that you should plant as much as possible in the fall. She says that snapdragons grown in the fall have better disease and pest resistance, more stems, and greater abundance than those planted in spring. They will also bloom for longer during the summer heat because they’re better established.
The fall is also an excellent time to plant, as the pests and diseases are less prevalent and the humidity levels are lower. This is a season that is much more pleasant for both gardeners and plants.
These annuals are able to be planted all year long in the southern United States, i.e. when the ground isn’t frozen.
Lisa controls the weeds by hoeing between the rows each week, starting with the direct sowing and continuing until the frost. This gives seedlings an advantage over weeds.
