PLANTING
Daylilies These heat-loving perennials come in every shade of apricot, lavender, orange, pink, purple, red, and yellow. Choose from hundreds of varieties, including miniatures or flowers with contrasting centers, ruffled edges, and broad or narrow petals. Consider trying one or several from the long-blooming Starburst series: yellow-and-red 'Black-eyed Stella'; yellow 'Happy Returns' and 'Stella de Oro'; and red 'Pardon Me'. Daylilies grow best when the soil has been amended with plenty of organic matter, and produce the greatest bloom when given adequate water (don't allow the soil to go dry).
Wave series petunias Vigorous and impervious to heat, Wave petunias come in an ever-expanding range of colors, from hot pink, salmon, and crimson to deep purple. One plant can grow up to 5 feet across, making it ideal for large containers or for filling unsightly gaps left when Oriental poppies and other spring-bloomers go dormant for the summer. Pop in a plant wherever you need a big hit of color that lasts until the first hard frost. Check out wave-rave.com for more information about these award-winning plants.
MAINTENANCE
Care for containers Monitor soil moisture twice daily. When the soil is almost dry, water the container until it leaks out the drainage holes (test to make sure the soil is thoroughly moist). Add a few drops of liquid fertilizer to the water whenever temperatures exceed 80°. Rotate containers frequently so that sunlight reaches all sides evenly (for heavy pots, set them on stands with casters).
Deadhead flowers When flowers start to fade, snip off individual blossoms or cut spikes and clusters back to a new bud or healthy leaves. When the whole plant looks unkempt, cut stems down to basal foliage. Don't deadhead flowers on varieties grown for their attractive seed heads, such as Baptisia, bear's breech, butterfly weed, gayfeather, and sea lavender. When insects, powdery mildew, or rust damage the following plants, cut them down to the ground: columbine, cranesbill, hollyhock, lady's-mantle, lamb's ears, Shasta daisy, and summer phlox.
Green up lawns Bluegrass goes dormant and turns brown when temperatures regularly exceed 90°. If your community allows you to keep your grass green in summer, temporarily increase irrigation to every other day. If patches turn brown, set a sprinkler in that area to apply extra water. You can also stop fertilizing, raise the mowing height to 3 inches, and mow more frequently to prevent leaf scorch. If allowed to go dormant, bluegrass will generally green up again in late summer.
PEST CONTROL
Slugs and snails These pests hitchhike into your yard as eggs on nursery stock. Look for gray slugs and brown snails around compost bins and irrigated parts of the garden, especially early in the morning, in the evening, and on cool, overcast, or rainy days. Destroy slugs and snails or put them in a bag and toss them in the garbage. To attract and drown them, sink a shallow dish of beer in the soil around favorite plants; clean regularly. TIP FROM THE TEST GARDEN
Meet your yard's secret helpers
Beneficial insects and birds are the hardest-working unpaid gardeners you'll ever find; they help keep your plants healthy.
Ladybugs The black-and-yellow larvae and orange-brown adults feed on aphids. Encourage them to stay by planting common fennel and cosmos.
Green lacewings Their larvae dine on aphids, mealybugs, and scale. Attract adults with sweet alyssum and coreopsis.
House finches They consume aphids and other honeydew-secreting insects. Provide nesting space in vines.
Hummingbirds Besides nectar, they eat small bugs, and will even pick off adult whiteflies in midair. Supplement their feeders with nectar-rich salvias.
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