After shivering through another cold winter, warmer days are finally on the way.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And so too are the beautiful spring colours.
Cedar Nursery and Design gardening adviser, Jenni Sewell said there’s plenty you can start planting now as the weather warms up.
“A lot of your Perennials have come in now,” she told The Express on Thursday.
“Lavenders, daisies, wall flowers, foxgolves, delfinias are good to go and you’d just about be able to plant salvias.
“A lot of our evergreen ground covers like alpine phlox, lithodora, catmint.”
Despite the promise of hotter days, Ms Sewell said gardeners should still be aware of late frosts.
“Those are all pretty frost-hardy,” she said.
“Salvias maybe even wait another couple of weeks.”
The New England region has also been fairly dry lately.
Ms Sewell said drought-hardy options include any of the mediterranean plants, silver foliage plants like lavenders, salvias and agastache, santolina, helichrysum and diascia.
“Anything like that, all your grasses, are really dry-hardy,” she said.
“If you’re looking for annual colour then it’s petunias and snapdragons.
“Pansies are still flowering now and if you have them in the shade, they’ll still keep flowering for a long time.
“Pansies are usually called a winter annual and petunias are a summer annual.”
Summer annuals germinate during spring or early summer and mature by autumn of the same year.
She said aquilegias or granny’s bonnets are good to plant now.
“Even your winter flowers, that will be flowering at Easter are good to plant now,” she said.
“As long as you keep up your watering because it is pretty dry.
“Plants are like puppies, if you look after them for two years, you’ve usually got a good one.”
Ms Sewell said soils across Armidale vary greatly so “you must mulch”.
“Mulching retains water, so it stops evaporation,” she said.
“It helps with a bit of weed suppression, but it also keeps the ground at a more even temperature.
“It’s really good for encouraging worms and microbial activity.”
Along with garden consultation, Ms Sewell also goes to peoples homes to help them plan their gardens.
Contact the shop on (02) 6772 7273.