Rooting and Over-wintering Annuals

This impatien plant seeded at the end of last summer. I brought it into the house before frost and grew it in my kitchen window. It bloomed all winter long. By spring, it was quite large, so I took cuttings to root in water. Impatiens are easy to root simply by putting cuttings in water. It takes about a week or two. 

I also overwintered these coleus from plants I grew from seed last year. I took cuttings in the fall and put them in water. Coleus are probably one of the easiest plants to root in water. I overwintered them as well, planting them in this container in June.

Rooting annuals from cuttings is one easy way to keep costs down in the garden. Another advantage is you will get a plant exactly like the one from which you took cuttings, so you can control the look of the plants in your garden. I've also done this with petunias and geraniums. I have also saved seeds from all these annual plants. I do find cuttings to be more successful than seeds. It is much quicker and less mess and fuss. Cuttings root the fastest in the spring, especially with geraniums, but this method works almost any time of year.

Mom and Dad's Flower Garden at Dusk

 A few years ago, I showed you my Mom and Dad's deck adorned with summer flowers. Last night at dusk, I snapped photos of this summer's flowers for you to see.

This is their new three tiered hanging basket. They bought a two tiered basket, then added the larger bottom basket which was sold individually. They planted it with geraniums, begonias and ivy. It hangs on their front porch above a large pot of begonias.

These marigolds are a pretty pale yellow.

Even the mailbox is a pretty garden!

Pink geraniums planted under the mailbox.

The hydrangeas are in bloom.

I think they look like elegant summer snowballs.

In this close-up you can see the hundreds of tiny flowers making up each cluster.

Mom and Dad have several of these pretty iron window boxes on their deck. This year they are planted with sweet alyssum, bright yellow marigolds, and red geraniums. Before the summer is out, I will give you a day time tour to show you more of their pretty containers filled with flowers.

Mom's Flowers

My mom's flowers look so pretty I thought I'd share them with you. Her deck is adorned with an abundance of containers filled with impatiens, begonias, petunias, geraniums and other annuals. I've also included a photo of her hydrangeas planted along the driveway. Aren't they beautiful?