What's Blooming
It's always a great time to visit the Ridge Road Garden Center! We have a great selection of seasonal perennials and annuals that will beautify your garden, no matter the size! There is so much to see... perennials, annuals, bulbs, ornamental grasses, trees, flowering shrubs, ground covers, cacti, shade plants for outdoors and indoors. Come and see our selection of gifts, garden tools, pots, soil, plant food, cactus, amendments and garden accessories at the Garden Center!
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Butterfly Bush
The beautiful flowers on butterfly bushes start blooming in mid-summer and continue until the first frost. As its common name suggests, these delightful flowering summer plants attract a multitude of butterflies. The clusters of purple, white, or yellow flowers form a cone shape. These shrubby plants grow as perennials and are evergreen or deciduous, depending on your climate. The beauty of growing butterfly bush cultivars in your garden is that they still flower when many other plants have stopped. Their stiff stems and flower clusters create attractive cut flowers for fall and winter displays. Despite their delicate scent and appearance, butterfly bushes are astoundingly resilient and easy to grow, exhibiting hardiness from zones 5 through 9. In addition, this perennial is deer resistant, helping to ensure your growing success.
Chrysanthemums
Planted for their really spectacular blooms that come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, mums are the perfect fall-blooming plant. Their showy flowers appear in late summer and continue into the fall, creating dense mats of color. If you're planning on overwintering them, plant mums in late spring to give them time to develop roots. Mums are the quintessential flower of fall! They're sturdy, don't mind a light frost, and come in a rainbow of colors. Technically, they're perennials. They can be a few inches tall or a few feet, depending on the type. It is a plant that requires full sun and well-drained soil to grow, and it will do best in zones five to 10. Because of the plants’ shallow roots, it will need a bit more water than most plants. These fare so well in pots on porch steps or along the walkway until frost nips them. So cheery and colorful, they will brighten your home landscape well into winter.
Hydrangeas
Hydrangea are the it flower of summer. There are many different varieties of the perennial, and it can tolerate sun to part shade. Blooming in spring and summer, the hydrangea is considered a shrub. Reaching up to 15 feet in height, it grows quickly and often fills in a space in just one summer. You’ll find hydrangeas growing in hardiness Zones 3 to 7 as perennials. With flowers starting in spring and often last throughout summer into early fall, hydrangea flowers can be the foundation plant of your landscape. Hydrangeas like dappled or occasional shade, but they will not bloom in heavy shade. Even if you lack the space in your garden to grow hydrangeas, knowing how to grow hydrangea in a pot means you can still enjoy these beautiful blooms. The process is relatively simple, as long as you follow the basics of hydrangea care. Choose a large enough pot for the mature size of your specific hydrangea – at least 18 inches in diameter. Look for non-porous containers to help hold the consistent moisture level require by hydrangeas. Drainage holes will allow excess water to drain properly. Regular watering in the mornings can help prevent wilting. A thick layer of mulch can help retain moisture and keep soil cool. .
Iris
The most popular of the irises, with strap-like foliage and large showy blooms in a wide range of colors, Bearded Iris are among the easiest to grow provided that you plant them in a sunny site with well-drained soil. Irises are notorious for their hardy disposition; they don't mind temperature extremes, as long as the soil allows excess rain or snowmelt to drain away. Plant irises in late summer, when they are finished actively growing. One major departure of growing irises compared to other perennials: They do not like mulch. Although all irises share sword-like leaves and flowers with six spreading or drooping lobes, there are groups that grow from creeping rhizomes while others grow from bulb structures. Divide irises every three to five years. Irises are toxic to cats and dogs, especially the rhizomes. Trimming back foliage fans to about 6 inches in the fall makes the garden look tidy, reduces leaf surface area that might host fungal disease, and removes caterpillar eggs. Destroy all foliage that you remove, and do not add it to the compost bin. Although it's not a common method, you can grow irises in pots that are at least 12 inches wide.
Pansies
The gardener knows pansies as flowers with almost heart-shaped, overlapping petals in bright colors or bi-colors, often with face-like center markings. Breeding has produced pansies that are better able to stand up to the cold, surprisingly hearty. They’ll survive a frost, bouncing back from even single digit temperatures. If the blooms wither in the cold, the plants will often stay alive to bloom again, which makes them a great flowering plant for fall and early winter color. 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. USDA Zones 7 and above can grow pansies throughout the winter, and there are newer varieties, such as the ice pansy, that are bred to withstand light snow.
Salvia
Perennial salvias are mainstays of the midsummer garden border, blooming summer to autumn! These are great for cutting and beloved by bees and butterflies, plus they’re drought-tolerant! Salvias appear as a colorful spike of densely-packed flowers with tubular blossoms atop square stems and velvety leaves. Hummingbirds and butterflies love salvias’ tubular flowers and they’re adored by bees, too, so plant them if you wish to attract these pretty pollinators! Fortunately, salvia does not tend to attract deer or rabbits. The distinctive, pungent odor of their leaves that acts as a repellent to garden pests. Salvia are heat- and drought-tolerant, making them survivors in the summer garden. They grow 18 inches to 5 feet tall, depending on the variety. Salvias of all types can be grown in containers, too.