Knowing what to plant in July is good for every garden lover to know. Since many flowers reach their prime in July, you may need to replace some of those blooms. If you have not, we have some tips and tricks for you achieve a yard full of color.
Keep the color blooming
If there were a beauty contest for summer-blooming perennials, the finalists would include daisy-like flowers such as asters such as black-eyed Susan, blanket flower, coneflower, Shasta daisies, and sunflower. Your garden should be full of them! Some perennials show off their best in July. Lilies, coreopsis, Hardy geraniums, many salvias, and scabiosa are repeat bloomers that will last for a long period of time. Hollyhock, hibiscus, and lavatera (mallow family plants) are coming into bloom later in the summer as well. Some other amazing choices for summer color are bee balm, balloon flower, lavender, dahlia, chrysanthemum, echinacea, helenium, and oriental lily.
Maintaining those blooms
Most summer blooming annuals are in full swing by now…….if nothing is going wrong. Remove seeds from fuchsias and dead head your petunias to encourage more flowers. Protect against slugs and caterpillar damage geraniums and petunias. This budworm can be identified by the small black frass on the leaves and ruined blossoms. Watch for powdery mildew on zinnias, showing as damaged leaves with a white powdery growth. Other than that, most annuals should be fertilized regularly to keep them growing and blooming, and you can always add more throughout the season, we will have plenty.
It's good to know what to plant in July to get ahead, but don't forget to keep maintaining the blooms you already have, too. There are a few simple tasks that will keep your blooms looking glorious:
- To encourage longer flowering, deadhead bedding plants and repeat-flowering perennials.
- Taller flowers such as lupins and delphiniums may need additional supports.
- Feeding borders and containers is advised, as is keeping them well-watered in periods of drought.
- Watch out for aphids. Treat them with Neem oil, horticultural oils, or insecticidal soaps.
- Some spring-flowering shrubs will need to be pruned now, such as lilacs and forsythia.
Fill in any bedding gaps and borders with scented annuals for fragrant displays throughout the summer. Forget-me-nots are a great choice to seed May-September in spotted shade areas.
To keep disease from taking hold, pick flowers, fruit, and vegetables as they mature. This also helps keep new fruit and flowers coming.
As bearded iris’ foliage tips begin turning brown, stop watering. Trim leaves back after they wither, then dig and divide rhizomes. Let them dry in the shade for a few days so that cut surfaces will harden. Replant in beds that have been weeded and amended.
Slice the tops off small weed seedlings with a sharp hoe on a warm, dry morning, and let them lie where they fall. The sun will kill them by evening. Water deeply before you pull mature weeds so that taproots come out more easily.
Roses should be in full bloom or re-growing after their first flush of flowers. Unfortunately, this is now the time when black spot and powdery mildew fungi start appearing. Remove diseased leaves, do not moisten leaves, and apply fungicide regularly to minimize problems.
Enjoy a summer “staycation” in your garden full of color and beauty!
This didn’t really get to the heart of the issue – everything is beautiful and blooming right now but come mid-August.
everything is done with the exception of my dahlia’s. I was looking for other suggestions of stuff that will bloom in August.
Hello Al’s Garden – I’d love to get some ideas for planting attractive, low-growing (up to 2 ft), evergreen flowering shrubs along the driveway/walkway. My boxwood plants have become too large and I’d like some interesting ideas to replace them with. They are in a sunny area.
I enjoy your Woodburn store very much. Thank you! Ms. Terry
we have lived in Woodburn for 32 years. As I walk through our gardens, which are mature and established, (but never too established to buy more perennials at Al’s, I am so appreciative for three decades of marvelous quality plants and advice to match. We now have children living in three different areas of the country, and we always assist in their gardening efforts. When looking for, and buying from garden centers in their areas, the question always is “Was it as good as Al’s”. Thank you for setting a high standard!!
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