Zone Five and a Half: The Garden Potting Bench

Zone Five and a Half: The Garden Potting Bench:   How to build the best potting bench?  The most important element is height.  When six and a half foot Kenny built my garden bench--the...

Pansy Burn ~ Will Cold Harm Pansies?

Easter weekend was lovely.  The five dollar pansy vendor saw a brisk business at the county market.  Per usual, the resolution to go easy was overruled by the impulse to spread color.
In May and June I'll be moving those bright beauties to a cooler place, but for now--they rule.

Then the Midwest winter returned with a vengeance.  Ten days of cold and snow surely meant an untimely demise for the jonnie jump ups?  Not so.



Pretty and tough pansies are surprisingly hardy in the spring.  All survived the snowstorm.  Some lost their blooms, many leaf edges are crisp--but a few weeks of warmth will restore their brightness.

Pinch chilled pansies back by removing the damaged blooms with fingertips while anchoring the plant in the soil.  Pluck out leaves that are more than fifty percent damaged. 

Go Tigers!

The remaining plant will come back fuller than its earlier hothouse version

Opening Day was brisk, but extra layers abated the chill.

This past weekend saw temps in the eighties and nineties but no precipitation.  Lack of moisture causes far more damage to pansies than icy winds. 

Water well.

Now about those deer hungry for bright pansy salad?

Apparently Bambi likes his greens chilled.

Try these:

Urbane Wildlife

Lafayette Greens ~ Detroit Grows Up!

Impatiens 2016 ~~ The Blight is Back

Impatiens 2017 are a "no-go" once again

This year's not looking hopeful for Bizzy Lizzies.  Last season, buoyed by the passage of time and abundant presence of these colorful lovelies in the garden center, beds were again filled with impatiens. 

All appeared positive for the first warm months, as the yard had been clear of downy mildew for over three years.  Sadly, by mid summer, the lizzies were looking less busy.  Within weeks the mildew blight had returned. 

In 2016 it's back to the reliable replacements of begonia and coleus in place of impatiens.

No worries! There are fabulous alternatives to impatiens for color in the shade garden:

What To Plant Instead of Impatiens?

Begonias Are the New Impatiens

Coleus Revisited Should I Plant Coleus Instead of Impatiens?

Impatiens Blight Disease -- Trouble In the Landscape

Bye Bye Bizzie Lizzies

It'll be a long while before impatiens should be considered for the Midwest garden.