local dirt Reader's questions
Mrs. Dobbie: I just subscribed to the Manitoba
Gardener. Can you help me with my plant issue? My backyard faces south. During the
summer months the yard gets very hot. After a few years of spending quite a bit of money on plants, which die early in the season, I was wondering if you could recommend someone to speak to regarding acquiring plants with a longer life span that will tolerate heat. My back yard would be entirely
container gardening. I thank you for your time. Claude Nolin
Hi Claude: Plants such as petunias and calibra-
choas love the heat. Geraniums like it dry and hot and there are specialty plants such as bougainvillea that enjoy this climate too. Black-eyed-Susan vine is pretty well indestructible and all kinds of salvias like
tors there this year, we had a blast checking out all of the new products and buying up plants. Our Farm had a massive display of succulents that were flying off their tables. Newcomers Prairie Oil had a bustling booth, if you didn't taste their flavoured olive oils and balsamic vinegars, look them up, they were amazing. Our table was hopping all day long, thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello and purchase subscriptions. Congratulations to Jessica Brunet, the winner of our gift basket.
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sun and heat. Verbena and Lantana both like sun and heat as does scaevola. Diamond Frost euphorbia is a neat trail- er plant with clouds of little white flow- ers ideal for containers. The sweet potato vines – lime green, black, dark magenta – all enjoy sun. Any gray leaved plant, such as helichrysum, will be a sun lover
too. Snapdragons should last the season – I love the trailing ones if you can find them. Celosia and dahlias are showy and toler- ate heat. These plants should perform well for you
most of the summer and some into fall. Types such as the marguerites and daisy- like ones will need to be deadheaded to get new blossoms. Also, you can help keep petunias going
longer and looking lovelier by cutting them back in summer – they will reward you by branching out and producing even more blossoms. With container plants, the issue is
generally watering and size of the pot. If drying out is a problem, add a bit of coco- husk (coir) to the potting medium – one part coco-husk to six parts soil or potting mix (works better than the gels that are put into commercially potted baskets). This will keep your containers moist a lot longer. Containers with a peat or straw type
basket dry out faster than those in a plas- tic pot. Plants to take off your list are pansies,
which like it cool and damp; begonias which love the shade, (except for Solenia begonias which are bred for sun but need to be kept moist); and impatiens, which like shade (except New Guinea impatiens which like sun). We all love lobelia but it prefers shade, even the sun-tolerant ones like some shade. Some annuals, such as forget-me-nots
or poppies are very short-blooming (we call them ephemerals) so avoid using them in containers. Thank you for subscribing and best
regards, Dorothy
4 • Spring 2015
localgardener.net Gardening Saturday
e thought the show's new location at the Victoria Inn Conven- tion Centre was a huge success. The new digs were spacious and the booths so much roomier. There were so many great exhibi-
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