Many of us have unknowingly plagued our yards with SCTN (Spring Color Then Nothing). We start out with good intentions, visiting the local nursery one spring weekend to see what catches our eye. After falling in love with a plant or two we take them home and plant them. Feeling good about things, we head out the next Saturday morning and do the same. Rinse and repeat until the yard is full.
Our yard is looking fantastic; the neighbors talk, and we pull proudly into the driveway each evening knowing we have the most colorful yard on the street. We are a shoe-in for Yard of the Month. Then it happens, the color goes away. SCTN has set in. How did this come about? We worked so hard, we purchased such beautiful plants, and now they are just green.
SCTN can easily occur when we don’t have a plan for our yard, and make plant purchases on a whim. Fortunately there is a cure for Spring Color Then Nothing, and the answer may be of all places the local nursery where the problem began. We are fortunate to live in a climate where a wide array of blooming trees, shrubs and perennials thrive. There is an abundance of plants that, thoughtfully combined, can provide continuous color or interest throughout the entire year. In other words; a plan.
Many easy-to-grow shrubs like spireas, abelias, butterfly bushes, hydrangeas and shrub roses bloom nearly all summer. The same goes for perennials like coreopsis, coneflowers, salvias and scabiosa. Incorporate a few of these along with your spring-blooming azaleas, lilacs, and weigelas and you have half the year covered. We can bring autumn into bloom with limelight hydrangeas and osmanthus fragrant tea olive. Mid-fall camellia sasanquas start flowering with varieties that will take us to Christmas. At that time winter daphne and witch hazels begin showing their colors. As for post-summer perennials, we have sedums, asters, and mums for fall color. While winter-blooming perennials are minimal, Lenton Rose will start flowering late January, and take us well into spring.
Achieving continuous overlapping color, takes more thought than these last few paragraphs might suggest, and this is where some research and discussions with your local nursery folks pays off. With a little effort and planning we can rid our yards of the dreaded SCTN once and for all. Think how easy it will be to win Yard of the Month in August while your neighbors are still struggling with Spring Color Then Nothing.
