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!

Banish Those Mid-Summer Gardening Blues

Posted by: Micaela Truslove, Broomfield County Extension

Late July is a tough time in the garden.  It’s warm--really warm--and the beautiful little transplants and seedlings you had in June are now beginning to show their age, while the weeds and insects seem to be growing stronger and more plentiful by the day.  It’s enough to make any gardener frustrated, but before you throw in the trowel and give your garden over to the beasties, let’s step back and talk about some tools that will get you through the long, hot mid-summer days, sanity intact.

Deadheading can result in
beautiful bouquets for your
home. (Photo M. Truslove)

Provide the right environment to keep plants healthy.  The first step to give plants a fighting chance is to make sure they have everything they need to remain strong in the face of mid-summer challenges.  When plants are run-down and weak, they are far more susceptible to disease organisms and insects, just like us (well, minus the insect bit).

Practice smart watering.  Making sure plants have adequate water is obviously important when temperatures begin to rise, but avoid the “more is better” approach.  Soggy soils can be just as harmful as dry soils.  Remember that ideally plants need equal parts oxygen and water in the soil to grow properly. Proper watering rather than overwatering will help keep plants hydrated and happy.

It’s never too late to mulch.  One way to conserve water and ensure even soil moisture is to mulch.  At a recent talk about caring for woody plants during drought, Fort Collins City Forester Tim Buchanan said “Good things happen to people who mulch”.  Mulching is important for many reasons, including keeping plants cool and hydrated.  Even if you applied mulch in the spring, now is a good time to make sure you still have good coverage.  Three to four inches is generally adequate.  Apply and wait for good fortune to befall you.

Fertilize wisely.  Avoid the temptation to douse ailing plants with a heavy dose of fertilizer. Some plants, such as annuals and those kept in containers, may benefit from a light application of water soluble fertilizer.  They often start losing steam mid-summer because the nitrogen reserves in the soil have been depleted.   Some vegetables are heavy feeders, such as corn and potatoes, and also benefit from a small boost of fertilizer later in the season.  A good sign that they are low in nitrogen is that the leaves begin to yellow, starting with older leaves at the base of the plant.  Remember that nitrogen promotes leafy growth over flower and fruit production, so avoid excessive applications of N late in the summer.

Avoid the temptation to fertilize perennials this late in the game. These plants are past the initial growth spurt that naturally happens earlier in spring and summer and are winding down for the year. Fertilizing late in the season encourages succulent new growth that will be vulnerable to insect attack and cold injury in winter.

Remove plants that are past their prime.  Sometimes tough love is the best love.  This goes for annuals and vegetables that are limping along so you can glean one last harvest or one final bloom.

These new beet seedlings will
be ready to harvest by fall.
(Photo: M. Truslove)

These plants are magnets for pests and diseases, so remove them, add them to the compost, and know that their death hasn’t been in vain.  Replace them with fresh, new plants, or in the case of vegetables, plant a second crop for a fall harvest.  In the Denver metro area we still have roughly 70 days until the first average frost, so choose crops and varieties that will mature before the first week of October.  Good candidates are leafy greens such as spinach, swiss chard and lettuce, beets, carrots, turnips, broccoli, radishes, and peas. Be sure to check seed packets as different varieties of the same vegetables can have wildly different maturity rates.

Deadheading.  Also in the category of tough love is the practice of deadheading.  Yup, sometimes plant decapitation is just what the doctor ordered.  By deadheading, you are thwarting the plant’s mission to reproduce, so it keeps making more flowers to complete its lifecycle, which we are artificially prolonging for our viewing pleasure.  Ingenious.

In addition, cutting flowers more or less at their prime not only satisfies the need to deadhead, you can also create beautiful bouquets for your home.  If deadheading is not your style, you can let plants go to seed, which is appreciated by many species of birds, and will increase the number of plants you have without having to buy more.  Also ingenious.

This bindweed clearly should
have been pulled long ago. There
are plants in there somewhere...
(Photo: M. Truslove)

Weeding and more weeding.  Some folks love to weed--all...summer...long. I have to admit, this isn’t me.  I do love the look of a newly weeded, tidy garden, but by the time mid-summer rolls around, it brings less joy and feels like more of a chore, but it is important to keep it up.  Weeds are contending for the same water and nutrients as your more desirable garden plants, so give your plants the advantage and keep it up.  Staying on top of the weeds will also ensure that you’ll have fewer to contend with next season.

When late July rolls around and both you and your plants are feeling less than perky, it is important to keep on top of those small tasks.  Following the tips above will keep your garden healthy and looking its best into fall.