April is here and that means our cabin fever has reached its breaking point. The sun is shining longer and we need to be outside. Many of us see the sunshine and have the urge to start our gardening. We’ve been waiting for months to be outside. We want to start playing in the dirt. But April’s weather might not be stable enough for all flowers. Here are a few flowers that will be perfectly happy with April’s ever-changing weather.
Zinnia ‘Green Envy’
Zinnias are annuals, so they’ll grow for one season and produce seeds, but the original plant will not come back in subsequent years. They have bright, solitary, daisy-like flowerheads on a single, erect stem, which makes them great for use as a cutting flower or as food for butterflies.
Zinnias are fast growers. You can direct sow in the spring, after all, danger of frost has passed, and can sow a second batch in mid-summer to have fresh plants blooming into the fall. Whether an old or new variety, all zinnias prefer a site with full sun and well-draining soil.
There are three main kinds of zinnia flowers: single, semidouble, or double.
Daylily
The leaves are a dead giveaway as to which plant you have. Daylilies have long, flat strap-shaped blades that grow in clumps from the crown of the plant, at the soil line. Daylilies grow from about one foot high up to four feet tall.
Daylilies also grow from thick, tuberous roots that are easily divided.
Daylilies are popular with hybridizers, and there are over 30,000 named varieties. Each flower blooms for only one day, which is why daylilies do not make good cut flowers. The name Hemerocallis comes from the Greek words “Hemera,” which means day and “kallos”, which means beauty. The flowers are borne on thin stalks, or scapes, that grow from the base of the plant. The scapes may be multi-branched.
Older varieties needed to be deadheaded every day, to keep them in bloom. Newer hybrids tend to deadhead themselves. Most plants have multiple buds that will bloom over a period of time.
If you look closely at the flower, you’ll see that six petals are in two layers of three. The top three are the actual petals. The bottom three are sepals. The center of the flower, the throat, is often a contrasting color. Each flower has either six or seven stamen and an additional two-lobed anther. Daylily flowers come in a variety of forms, including circular, triangular, double, ruffled, star-shaped, and spider-shaped.
Nasturtiums
Nasturtium is an easy-to-grow annual whose leaves and flowers are edible.
These plants, with their bright greenery and vibrant flowers, are good for containers or as ground cover. Their pretty fragrance also makes them a good choice for cut flowers. Nasturtiums are perfect to grow with children because they grow so easily and rapidly.
Nasturtium plants (botanical name: Tropaeolum) grow full, with lots of bright green leaves and spots of brightly colored blossoms poking out of the masses of foliage. Their leaves are rounded, like a water lily’s, and the flowers have an open funnel shape with a curious little claw or spur on the underside.
These flowers can vary, but the most popular versions are yellow, orange, pink, red, and mahogany. There are also varieties in subdued shades of butter yellow and cream. The ‘Alaska’ Series and the climbing ‘Jewel of Africa’ have variegated leaves.
Some varieties of nasturtiums are perennial in USDA Zones 9 through 11, but most are annual plants, growing from seed to seed in one season. As with most plants, the mature zone will vary depending on the type of nasturtium you plant and the growing conditions.
Pansy
Pansies are the colorful flowers with “faces.” A cool-weather favorite, pansies are great for both spring and fall gardens! Here’s how to plant pansies as well as keep them growing and blooming.
Pansies have heart-shaped, overlapping petals and one of the widest ranges of bright, pretty colors and patterns.
Good for containers, borders, and as ground cover, they are a go-to flower for reliable color almost year-round. Pansies look pretty on their own in a monochrome scheme or in mixed colors; they also look pretty when planted with other cool-season flowers such as violas, primroses, trailing lobelia, and sweet alyssum.
The pansy may be treated as either an annual or a perennial, depending on your climate. However, most gardeners treat this plant as an annual because it prefers cool weather and gets too leggy in the heat of summer. There hasn’t been much success in producing heat-tolerant pansies that can adequately survive hot weather.
Million Bells
Million bells were exported from South America to Europe in the 1800’s but overshadowed by petunias for a long time. Like other members of the plant family, Solanaceae is a tender perennial, but most gardeners treat the spring through frost bloomers as annuals.
The blooms of million bells are approximately one inch across, and many sport veining or colorful throats that contrast with the primary petal color. Million bells’ foliage is bright green, oval-shaped, and compact.
While they grow best in full sun, they can grow in colder shaded areas. Million bells are extremely resilient and are a perfect April flower.