10 Tips to Enhance Your Outdoor Space
With Easy-to-Grow Edibles and Plants that Attract Birds and Butterflies
AZUSA, Calif., April 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Are you ready to create a beautiful outdoor space where you can spend time with family and friends? This season Monrovia, the leading grower of premium garden plants, helps you dig deeper with tips to put together a gathering place that will reward you with easy to grow edibles, glorious flowers ideal for bouquets, and plants that provide shelter and food for essential pollinators like butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. Here are 10 simple steps to get you growing:
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- Make a garden that rewards you with edibles like Raspberry Shortcake™, a dwarf, thornless variety that does especially well in a container; or Brown Turkey fig, which fruits twice a year with plump, sweet fruits.
- Plant an Angel Red® pomegranate tree this spring for a summer of bright orange flowers and a fall crop of sweet fruit. This newer variety produces a bounty of large, bright-red fruit with a higher juice content and yummy sweet-tart seeds. A small tree (10 feet high and wide), this one's excellent for arid climates and is drought-tolerant once established. Anti-oxidant rich pomegranate fruits will last up to two months in the refrigerator.
- Herbs are a great choice, especially for beginner gardeners. Tuck them into sunny spots in the garden or in containers. They are practically foolproof and you can instantly start using them in cooking, flower arrangements, wreaths and dried in sachets. Try rosemary – birds and bees love the tiny flowers; thyme, which makes a great groundcover; and a new variety of sweet bay that is fragrant, called Little Ragu™.
- Pollinators are so important in the garden. They help increase flower and fruit yield of your plants. Fortunately, pollinators like the same colorful and fragrant plants that people love! Try Scarlet Torch™ bottlebrush, with its profusion of crimson red blooms, and salvia, a waterwise choice that comes in a variety of vibrant colors.
- Who doesn't love dainty, colorful butterflies and bees buzzing in their garden? Two more powerful pollinator magnets are daphne, like Carol Mackie with its fragrant, soft pink blooms and variegated foliage, and lily of the valley shrub whose tiny white flowers resemble the tiny, fragrant perennial.
- Summer is all about vases bursting with flowers right from the garden. This season, plant prolific cut-flower favorites like Knock Out® roses (they are pest and disease resistant and self dead-head), or famously fragrant and drought tolerant lavender. Lenten roses are still blooming and two new varieties are especially vase-worthy: Elegance Pearl with its white-infused-with-pink double blooms, and Cinnamon Snow's large, creamy white flowers that shimmer with shades of rose.
- To add interest to a bouquet, use some plants in your garden that have interesting branches or leaves. Variegated foliage like Camouflage™ aralia or Tropicanna® canna looks fabulous in an arrangement – and last a long time. Then add some fragrance with lilac blooms or heliotrope, known for its cherry pie scent.
- Plants provide shelter for beneficial creatures like birds, butterflies, lizards and frogs. Dense shrubs and trees are ideal. A stunning new variety of Hemlock to try is Golden Duchess™. Holly is great because it also provides berries as a food source all winter. Don't forget to provide a water source, like a bird bath or fountain for the little guys.
- It's a fact -- plants grown in nutrient-rich soils are healthier, with stronger root systems. At Monrovia's nurseries, the soil mixes are amped up by adding mycorrhizae, a beneficial fungus. You can continue the healthy start by generously mixing compost into your own garden soil.
- When you first plant your fruit trees and berry shrubs, you'll want to deep water them regularly during the first year until their roots become established. But there are some tricks you can try for drought areas. Learn more about watering.
For more ideas and inspiration from Monrovia, visit www.monrovia.com
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Background on Monrovia:
Founded in 1926, Monrovia is the leading grower of premium ornamental and edible plants, with more than 3,600 varieties, including more than 214 exclusives. Monrovia works with the world's best breeders to bring improved plants to the gardens of America and Canada. Its Distinctively Better® plants are nurtured by hand to produce healthy plants that flourish in the landscape. Monrovia's five environmentally responsible nurseries are located in Visalia and Venice Hills, Calif., Dayton, Ore., Cairo, Ga., and Granby, Conn. Monrovia plants can be purchased in-store or online with delivery to independent garden centers and through re-wholesalers nationwide. The company remains a family owned entity. www.monrovia.com http://shop.monrovia.com/
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