Whether in flower beds, containers, hanging baskets or window boxes, summer bedding plants can quickly and economically help create the colorful landscape that so many gardeners crave. Through careful selection, a gardener can grow bedding plants that will thrive despite the sweltering heat of summer.
Bedding plants are classified into two groups based on the temperatures they prefer.
Cool-season bedding plants (such as pansies, dianthus, snapdragons, stock and calendulas) do best in the cold to mild temperatures of October through early May.
Warm-season bedding plants (such as torenia, begonia, marigolds and zinnias) grow and flower best in the warm to hot months of April to October. Because they are sensitive to freeze damage, warm-season plants are planted after the danger of frost is over. Now is the time to plant warm-season bedding plants into new beds in your landscape or as you remove cool-season annuals from existing beds.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: LSU AgCenter
