Downtown Flowers Signal Summertime for Puebloans

 By Sherie Shaffer, Horticulture Agent, CSU Extension-Pueblo County

My favorite part of the flower display, in front of Pueblo Union Depot

These two are Craig's favorite containers

Every year, Puebloans are signaled to the beginning of summer when the huge, beautiful containers of petunias and geraniums appear downtown.

These beauties are in front of local boutique, Razmataz

Everyone loves the smell of fresh petunias in the morning

The Pueblo Union Depot, along with B Street and a good portion of Union Avenue get decked out with these blossoms every year in May, thanks to local business owners the Koncilja’s. The flowers are purchased from a local nursery, but you may be wondering, who cares for them and keeps them looking stunning all summer long?

Looking down B Street from the Union Depot

Patrons of the cafes on B Street get to look at these containers while they dine

Some of the containers are hanging, while some are on the ground

The answer is two guys, Craig and Brandon. We got an opportunity for an insider tour of the daily care of these flowers, thanks to the fact that Craig is my brother. Turns out it’s no small feat to keep these blooms looking brilliant during the heat of a Southern Colorado summer.

Craig with his trusty hose reel 

Turns out it doubles as a fun ride

A close up of the reel

Unless it rains, which is not something that happens often around here, the flowers need to be watered daily. Craig and Brandon have portable hose reels, that they wheel around downtown and hook to multiple different spigots around where the flowers are located. They must start early, not only to beat the heat but also to beat the morning downtown buzz. Turns out it’s a lot easier to stretch the hose out when the foot traffic is low.

Luckily he's tall to reach the hanging containers

The hose spigots have keys to turn them on

As they water each container individually, by hand, they also do whatever deadheading needs to be done on each plant. This keeps the plants looking nice and encourages them to keep blooming all summer long. Sometimes, when a plant gets a little leggy, they will trim them up to keep the shape looking nice and compact.

Right in front of the doors to the Union Depot

These containers are in Tandoori's courtyard

More beautiful flowers

Of course, water and TLC aren’t quite enough to keep the flowers looking their best. They also get fertilized weekly. The Petunias get fed with a 20-3-19 water-soluble Petunia Feed that includes Magnesium. The geraniums get a 20-10-20 general-purpose water-soluble fertilizer. To deliver the fertilizer, they use a Dosatron nutrient injector. First, they mix about 10 cups of the dry fertilizer in a bucket, and fill it with water, this is the concentrate. They then set the injector to the appropriate level and insert the hose of the injector into the concentrate bucket. The water supply is then hooked to the injector and it delivers the desired concentration of fertilizer into the irrigation water.

The fertilizer they use to keep the blooms looking beautiful

The Dosatron fertilizer injector

Pest and disease issues haven’t been too bad in the past. During really hot spells some of the petunia leaves will become sunburnt from the reflected heat of the sidewalk, and they have dealt with some small aphid infestations. Nothing a call to the local Extension Agent/sister and a strong stream of water couldn't handle!

Another view of Tandoori's courtyard

These lucky flowers get some morning shade

So, although it’s no small task to keep these flowers looking great all summer long, the people of Pueblo are so glad that they are purchased and cared for to keep our downtown looking bright and beautiful!

When Plants Go (somewhat) Rogue

Posted by: Alison O'Connor, Larimer County Extension

I really enjoy weeding my landscape. Call me crazy, but I enjoy plugging my ears with my iPod, making things tidy and dumping five-gallon buckets of weeds in the trash. It's a real sense of accomplishment. I also enjoy seeing what's new in the garden...did my newly planted perennials survive? Do the shrubs need water? And seeing what's gone rogue.

Uh oh. Plants gone rogue. The potential to be invasive. Plants you want to avoid with a ten foot pole (mint, anyone?). But is "going rogue" a bad thing? In some cases, no....I actually enjoy plants that gently go rogue. Those that randomly pop up and say "Hello! Here I am! Aren't I cute?!" And those that are easily to pull out and remove.

An example of a plant that's gone rogue and is NOT easy to mitigate is Russian sage. Yet I have it in my landscape. CO-Hort blogger Eric discussed this topic a couple years ago (and offers great suggestions to alternatives). But as big of a pain as this plant is, it does have a place...and in my yard, it is a border between my landscape and our neighbor's gravel driveway. It adds some nice separation. It's also a honey bee magnet. But sadly, Russian sage doesn't care about property lines, so I'm constantly pulling it from their gravel. Ugh. Russian sage--a bad rogue plant.

Russian sage growing in my neighbor's gravel pad. You can also see where I whacked it back to stay on our side of the property.

But some examples of gentle roguers (a new word?) include:

Petunia! Maybe this is common for you, but I've never had a petunia reseed. This one took up residence in my flagstone path, which is a great spot. What I'm trying to remember is if the petunia hanging basket I had last year was white? This petunia is so cute!

White petunia that found a home in the flagstone path.

Portulaca! Another annual, and one that commonly reseeds. I planted a few plugs a number of years ago and every year since, the portulaca fills in gaps in the flagstone and nearby beds. Fine by me! It's easy to pull and has great flowers that only are open during the day.

Portulaca that reseeds every year in the flagstone. The only problem is it's hard to distinguish from purslane (they are in the same genus).

Lamb's ear! I feel this may be controversial for some, since lamb's ear is a love it-hate it plant. Personally, I love lamb's ear, and while it's in the mint family and can be invasive, I find it easy to control by ripping it back whenever necessary. But what I find absolutely adorable about this lamb's ear is that this one is in my vegetable garden, a good 20+ feet from where the lamb's ear is planted. I can't bear to remove it, so I'll leave it for awhile and admire its perniciousness.

Lamb's ear roguing it in the veggie garden. So cute! And my garlic (on right) is nearly ready for harvest.

Angelina sedum! I have blogged about how much I love this sedum in past posts, so I won't belabor the point, but this sedum is lime green in summer and copper in fall. And it creeps and fills in. I started with a very small 4" perennial and it's grown to fill in a pretty big spot. I've also found it near my shed, rooted in a path and happily growing wherever it sees fit. Don't like where it's moving? Pull it and replant the roguers.

Maple was so excited to be in this photo with the Angelina sedum.

Coneflower! I feel like this one blindsided me. I guess I should have known, seeing as how coneflower is a native, but wow. Talk about prolific. I'm going to label this one a "medium roguer" since it's not as easy to relocate or remove. I originally planted coneflower in a sunny spot near a path and some other perennials. They quickly grew to be five feet tall and reseeded everywhere. In the path, across the yard and a few other spots. But can you really dislike coneflower? It's sturdy, a great bloomer and a friend to bees. So I deal with it.

The original coneflowers.

This coneflower was not planted, but found a home by the lavender. I like it! 

Sunflowers! And other bird seed! The birds in my yard go crazy for black oilers. So do my beagles for that matter. And if you feed the birds, you'll get some of the seed germinating below or nearby the feeder. It's inevitable. I have sunflowers. You might get corn. Or millet. All of these are annuals that may or may not be your cup of tea. I remove a lot of the sunflowers, but also let a few grow because they are nice.

Why not let these grow? The mulch path is for the dogs, and they provide some obstacles to run around.

Another that just came to mind is columbine...but mine all are tired and sickly-looking, so I'll spare you a photo. So tell me...what in your garden is a gentle roguer? Or even an aggressive roguer that you happen to love? I'm all (lamb's) ears!

A Great Time to Visit Color

Posted by: Jim Klett, Professor and Extension Specialist, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture

Window boxes of annuals accent this property in Vail, Colo.

Late July through Early August is an ideal time to visit many sites throughout Colorado to observe annual flower color.  All along the Front Range and many mountain communities are bursting with fantastic color from annual flower plantings.  It is a great time to visit city displays of annuals along with more formal plantings at botanic gardens and the trial grounds at Colorado State University.

Petunia Cascadias Indian Summer

The CSU Trial Grounds is located on College Avenue and Lake Street next to the University Center for the Arts (1401 Remington Street, Fort Collins).  These Trials include about 1070 different annual varieties with over 500 different containers including over 250 new varieties for 2013.  Many new petunia colors are planted which include some major genetic breakthroughs along with exceptional Sun Impatiens.  Petunia ‘Cascadias™ Indian Summer’ has an outstanding mix of flower color along with a new distinct yellow petunia called ‘Suprise Yellow’.

Petunia Surprise Yellow

Numerous lantana varieties are planted but one called ‘Lucky Sunrise Rose’ has an extremely attractive flower color that your eye goes to immediately. 

Lantana Lucky Sunrise Rose

The annual flowers in Old Town Fort Collins are exceptional with many great combinations in containers and beds. 

CSU Annual Flower Trial Gardens
1401 Remington Street, Fort Collins

In the Denver metro area the Denver Botanic Garden has a great display of newer varieties along their York Street entrance.  Inside the gardens annuals are planted throughout the garden and especially in their All American Display area.  They have also displayed most of the ‘Best Of’ winners from the 2012 CSU Trials.

Parks and parkways throughout the City of Denver have excellent annual displays.  The formal Mount Vernon Garden in Washington Park along with their large display of annual color as you enter the park are places to visit for mass use of color.  Sixth, Seventh and Seventeenth Avenue parkways have excellent color displays along with displaying proper use of height in their displays.

Mountain communities, especially Vail, has outstanding annual flower displays.  Many of the displays have incorporated numerous perennial and ornamental grasses to add distinct color and texture contrasts.  Containers, hanging baskets and flower boxes are throughout the business area making a very enjoyable shopping visit.  The flower boxes around many of the restaurants show outstanding uses of color.

Window boxes of annuals dress up this entrance

Try to take some time at this time of year to visit some of the outstanding use of annual colors throughout our beautiful state.