Growing for Success | Trends come and go

By Riverside Gardens

Oct 19, 2023

Overflowing: Potted colour. Photo by Contributed

Larry Smith and the Riverside Gardens team talk all things pots, plants and pruning in their weekly gardening column.

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Over the 40-plus years I have been in the horticultural industry, I have become aware of and watched the slow drift in trends in garden styles and people’s plant choices, with changes ranging from formal gardens with flowing lawns to cut grass with a few hardy shrubs, native gardens, succulents and even the dreaded yucca-dominant gardens.

One trend that has caught us a bit off guard, though, has been the substantial increase in demand for annual flowering seedlings this year. Plants such as petunia, marigold, impatiens, salvia, begonia, lobelia, alyssum and portulaca have become very popular.

This is the type of gardening that I spent my apprenticeship doing at Government House in Melbourne. With annual display beds two metres wide and 20 metres long, they are formed up, planted out, nurtured, weeded and manicured to create stunning displays of mass colour.

It is nice to see its revival, as it is a rewarding style of gardening if you enjoy growing things, and it will probably give you the best hit of colour for your garden or display pots.

Incorporating annual flowering plants into your garden requires a little work and planning, but it is not hard labour.

Once you have chosen the area to use, spread a layer of compost or manure over the top of the soil and dig it in, loosening the soil to a depth of about 200mm. Form up the garden with a rake, finishing it with a smooth, even surface, ready for planting, and that’s the hard work over and done with.

Choose the style of planting you wish to go with, whether it is a mass planting of one variety or a layered planting using lower plants at the front through to higher ones at the back. Most seedlings are planted about 200mm to 250mm apart, so this will determine how many rows you will need to fill the depth of the garden.

Warm colours: Seedlings. Photo by Contributed

When you purchase your seedlings, they will come in punnets of usually six to eight plants, which can be gently pulled apart into individual plants. You will find it easiest to mark out the plant spacings for the whole garden before you start planting.

Then, make a small hole in the soil to place the roots into without bunching them up, firm them in with a bit of soil and move on to the next one. When the whole garden is planted, give it a good watering to settle everything in.

You will also find it beneficial at this time to share your new seedlings a dose of Plant Start root stimulant to reduce transplant shock and quickly establish new roots. This is a great product, and I would recommend it any time you are planting or repotting plants.

If you are unsure about what plants go with each other or what plants are suited to the amount of sun you have, ask the garden centre staff for advice.

While you are in among the seedlings, don’t forget that it is also time to plant up your vegie gardens as tomatoes, capsicums, lettuce, onions, spinach, chillies, eggplant, rockmelon and cucumber all go in now.