Breaking ground

Drought-resistant lantana is not considered an invasive species in Arkansas — although it is along the Gulf Coast.
Drought-resistant lantana is not considered an invasive species in Arkansas — although it is along the Gulf Coast.

AUGUST

July was a roller-coaster ride with rain. We seem to have feast or famine. Most of the state was crackling dry, but powerful storms came through some parts and did some damage.

• Pay attention to the weather and know how much rain your garden receives. Heavy, quick downpours help, but often more water runs off than penetrates. A nice slow, steady rain is what we would like. But sometimes we don't get what we want or need. Supplemental watering is usually a required, but requirements vary based on which plants you grow. Know what your plants need to help them thrive.

• Staying indoors and enjoying the air conditioning sounds appealing when heat indexes are above 100 degrees, but there are gardening chores that can be done and, unbelievably, August is the time to begin planting a fall vegetable garden. You can plant cool-season and warm-season crops now. Plant peppers, tomatoes and squash for a fall harvest.

• Midmonth, cool-season transplants of broccoli, cabbage and the like will start arriving in the market. You can seed greens, green beans, and lettuce later in the month. Water and mulch will be vitally important to get these new vegetables established this time of year.

• If you have been watering your summer vegetable garden, you should still be harvesting. Peppers, eggplant and okra are plentiful in many gardens.

• Tomatoes may be a bit slow right now. When daytime temperatures are above 95 or nighttime temperatures are above 75 degrees, tomatoes take a siesta. Ripening slows and blooms are reluctant to set new tomatoes. If your plants are still healthy, keep watering. Once the weather evens out (fingers crossed) they should begin to bear again.

• This summer has been a good trial for many of our summer annuals. Which plants are doing well in your garden and which aren't? Annual vinca or periwinkle looks amazing in many gardens, and I am duly impressed by Sunpatiens. Lantana, pentas and zinnias are also thriving in full sun. If you have been watering, your common impatiens are doing well in the shade, and the Dragonwing begonias look good, too.

• If your flowers have slowed their blooming, check nutrition. Annual flowers like fertilizer, and as much as we have watered or gotten rain, nutrients do leach out. Use caution when fertilizing when it is extremely hot and dry or you can burn your plants. Use regular, light applications, water it in well, and your flowers should come back.

• For all-summer blooming perennials and shrubs, know whether they set seeds or are self-cleaning and drop spent flowers. If your plants are trying to set seeds, you will be in the seed business and not the bloom business. Deadhead the spent blooms to direct energy into more blooms. Plants that benefit from regular deadheading include coneflowers (Echinacea), blanket flower (gaillardia), coreopsis and black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia). Summer spirea, some butterfly bushes (buddleia), some roses and crape myrtles will rebloom if you cut off spent flowers.

• For all our talk on watering annuals, vegetables and containers, don't forget about your spring-blooming trees and shrubs now. I have already seen new flower buds for next spring on camellias, tulip magnolias and dogwoods. More will be setting on other spring-blooming trees and shrubs through September. If they are too stressed or dry, they won't set as many buds. Encore or repeat-blooming azaleas are beginning to produce new blooms now and should continue through fall. No more pruning should be done to any spring-blooming plants -- including the reblooming azaleas. Treat them just as spring bloomers and only prune after they bloom in the spring. For now, all that you do is monitor water needs for all spring-blooming plants. No more fertilization or pruning is needed.

• Tropical flowering plants are in their element with this heat and humidity, but they do like a little water and some fertilizer. Regular fertilization will keep them blooming for another two to three months. You may also be able to find good bargains on summer tropical plants at area nurseries, so if you need a boost in color, go shopping. They do well in containers or planted in the ground, but if growing in containers, the bigger the better to help you keep them watered. Small pots dry out very quickly these days, especially in full sun.

LANTANA

One of the toughest summer annuals in the garden is the lantana, our plant of the month.

The original shrubby lantana (Lantana camara) is native to Central and South America. This is the old-fashioned lantana that can grow 3 to 6 feet tall and that sets seeds after it blooms.

It has been added to the invasive plant list in Florida and the Gulf Coast, but it is not invasive in Arkansas.

Trailing lantana is Lantana montevidensis. It grows up to 4 feet wide but only 8 to 12 inches tall. Flower colors on this one are lavender or white.

Most lantanas that we see in gardens centers today are hybrids, and mature size can vary from 8 inches to 4 or 5 feet in height, depending on which variety you buy. Read labels so you know what to expect.

Depending on where you live in the state, lantana can be an annual or a perennial. In south Arkansas, it is a perennial while in central Arkansas it can be hit-or-miss depending on the winter. In north Arkansas, most varieties are always annuals.

Lantanas bloom best in full sun. The flowers consist of a flower head made up of a cluster of tiny blooms. They could all be the same color -- yellow, white or red -- or each flower head could have a variety of tiny, individually colored blooms.

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Lantana comes in different colors and widely differing sizes at maturity, from 8 inches tall to 4 or 5 feet tall.

Lantana plants are considered toxic, and they usually are not eaten by deer or other animals. But they are great pollinator plants, attracting bees and butterflies. Although they are very drought tolerant once they are established, they will bloom better with average moisture and fertilization.

Janet B. Carson is a horticulture specialist for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

HomeStyle on 08/04/2018

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