Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening

A Gardener's Guide to Growing Flowers, from Today's Favorites to Unusual Varieties

Matt Mattus

• Publisher: Cool Springs Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780760366271
• eBook ISBN: 9780760366288
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Orticoltura

Get garden-tested guidance for beautiful blooms with this comprehensive, practical, and gorgeously illustrated study of the art of growing flowers.

In Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening, author Matt Mattus offers expert tips on growing both annuals and biennials (including native and heirloom species) based on his decades of first-hand experience in his own garden and greenhouse, made popular on his blog Growing with Plants. Accompanied by lush photography, every variety or species presented includes detailed information and tips that go beyond the very basic information typically available on the seed packet or a nursery tag. You’ll discover:

• Basic growing methods, including how to start seeds, soil, sowing, hardening off, transplanting, and growing on.
• Advice for growing a wide range of different flowers, organized by blooming season, including annuals from seed, summer bulbs, vines such as wisteria, and even blooming shrubs like lilacs. 
• In-depth profiles for a selection of flowers that include more-detailed growing techniques along with their histories and varieties.
• Pro tips, including how to grow challenging annual poppies and biennials from seed and forcing flowers for winter blooms.

Just a small selection of the flowers covered: heirloom and exhibition chrysanthemums, larkspurs and annual poppies, delphiniums, peonies, lilacs, and wisteria. Bulbs include spring and summer bulbs such as anemone, ranunculus, tulips, lilies, gladiolus, and cut flower dahlias, while winter indoor bulbs cover every aspect of forcing bulbs indoors like narcissus, amaryllis, South African bulbs—and even how to force Lily of the Valley.

Whether you’re interested in raising a small cut-flower garden, enhancing your flower border or containers, or just admiring the beauty of flowers, Mattus has it covered.

SUMMER BLOOMS

Here in New England, summer can really be divided into three distinct seasons. Early summer can be every bit as variable and unpredictable as spring. It is often cool and rainy, but it will just as likely be sunny and hot. High summer tends to be more stable, marked by heat and sun and vigorous growth. When late summer arrives, growth slows and the first yellowing leaves appear as nights grow longer and cooler. At the same time, new crops of flowers emerge in each season according to their growth patterns and preferences.

As much as gardeners seem to love to complain about the weather, weather always plays a key role in the success of a garden. Of course, we have no control over it, but we do have control over what we choose plant or sow, and when. We celebrate summer with flowers everywhere, whether for picking for arrangements or leaving alone in borders as landscape enhancement.

Adventurous gardeners are optimistic. We stubbornly try to grow flowers a zone or two warmer or the other way around, hoping for that perfectly long and cool spring that lasts into summer or a summer with adequate rainfall and low humidity. We then discover later that droughts and heat waves were the reality.

Setting the weather aside, summer is the peak season for flowers, regardless of where you live. CSAs and flower farms share their bounty at farmers markets, and our own gardens bear us floral gifts almost every day. Savvy gardeners often can tell the exact date by what is in bloom in their garden. The season may begin with cool-loving, rarer annuals like larkspurs, schizanthus, and viscaria, which must be raised from direct-sown seed. The dependable flowers of midsummer often are the more familiar perennials. Popular again are zinnias, asters, and marigolds, heat-loving annuals that are easy to grow from seed sown in early summer. And of course there are the majestic border bulbs like lilies and dahlias to enjoy.

A summer without zinnias is like a summer without ice cream. Plant rows, just for cutting, in the vegetable garden every three weeks until mid-August for continual blooms.

Salpiglossis sinuata ‘Kew Blue’

New agapanthus varieties are being introduced with increasing frequency, like this bicolored variety ‘Twister’

Shirley poppies are one of the most beautiful and delicate of annuals. Fragile and a bit challenging to grow, its flowers like this that make them so desirable.

Intersectional or Orient Pet lilies are sometimes sold as 'tree lilies' as they grow stems that are stronger than traditional selections, but most will still need staking as these can reach heights taller than 6 feet (1.8 m).

Dahlia ‘Hollyhill Calico’ a miniature ball but grown on a plant that can reach 6 feet (1.8 m) tall. Some are completely red while others are all ivory with just a speck of color on one petal.

A mouthful to pronounce, Zaluzianskya or Night Phlox looks understated and is often best grown in containers, as one grows not just for its appearance but for its vanilla scent at night.

Mignonette (Reseda odorata) are about as old fashioned as one can get when it comes to growing annuals. It was a popular Victorian cut flower, but rarely seen or grown anymore. Their fragrance, while mild, is not unlike that of scented violets.

Nicotiana collection in vases. Clockwise from top: Fragrant Nicotiana longiflora, N. knightiana, N. alata ‘Tinkerbell,’ and N. langsdorffii, which self seeds beautifully around the garden.

LAVENDER

Lavandula spp.

Lavender grows best in alkaline soil, enjoying a pH between 6.8 and 7.0. It enjoys plenty of water but requires good drainage too. It will not tolerate continually wet conditions in the summer or poor drainage combined with freezing winter conditions. Lavender performs exceptionally well in California, Colorado, and the western mountain states, but with some attention, it can be coaxed to success in most growing areas. See Featured Flower, here.

• Lavender likes sandy soil where water drains freely.

• Plant in full sun. The more hours per day lavender gets sunshine, the better.

• Lavender struggles in rich, acidic soil, growing best in slightly alkaline soil with a pH between 6.5 and 7.5.

• Variety matters. Choose the right variety for your region.

AGAPANTHUS

Agapanthus spp.

Agapanthus are as sturdy as hostas or daylilies, but they can be fussy when it comes to blooming. Plants in the amaryllis family, including clivia and amaryllis, are easier to raise if you avoid root damage and keep frost away from the roots and inner stems. While commercially propagated varieties now appear in many of our gardens and are worth seeking out, new named selections are often better choices, as some can reac...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Getting Your Garden Started
• Spring Blooms
• Summer Blooms
• Autumn Blooms
• Winter Blooms
• Resources
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• Meet Matt Mattus
• Copyright