Spring is a glorious season because you will see beautiful healthy plants in you garden swaying in the breeze of the wind and smelling the sweet fragrance of the your enchanting flowers and bouquets. You will love to see your garden with colorful flowers that are gracefully intermingling. This is the best time for gardeners that they sit and relax and enjoy their beautiful Spring garden.
LARGE-FLOWERED HEMP-NETTLE
Galeopsis speciosa is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all our native hemp-nettles. The pale yellow, lipped flowers have an eyecatching purple spot. They appear on stems which may grow up to 39 in tall, especially if sheltered by wooded banks or the fringes of a wood, places where they like to grow. They also like acid, nutritive soil and, as a result of current agricultural methods, there is plenty of that about. Even so, the plant is only sporadically found to be growing wild.
The compact growth and abundant flowers of this rock plant from southern Europe have now made it one of the most rewarding plants for containers and hanging baskets on balconies and patios. On closer inspection, the small violet flowers turn out to be striped and have a yellow and white spot in their throats. They are like snapdragons without lips and the plant is, in fact, closely related to the small toadflax (Chaenorhinum minus) that is also native to The Netherlands and southern counties of England. Its scientific name is derived from Greek: “chaino” means gape and “rhis” means “muzzle.” In botanical manuals, however, the generic name is spelt variously as Chaenorrhinum or Chaenar-rhinunt. The seed of Chaenorhinum origanifolium ‘Blue Dream’ rarely features in any catalogue, but you might also find it under Chaenorhinum glareosum ‘Blue Dream.’ Even so, you need not do without the plant, as it is cultivated on a vast scale. Commercial growers sow it as early as January to enable them to market sturdy, flowering plants by the end of May.
Plant them in the garden in very well-drained soil and in the sunniest spot you have available. When grown in pots, they do better in partial shade so that the soil does not dry out too quickly.
Diascias grow naturally in South Africa: the annual species in the low-lying, dry regions, and the perennials in the mountains, particularly the Drakensbergen, where they flower on rocky ledges or along the banks of brooks. The perennial species from the mountains are the types cultivated in our part of the world. They rarely survive northern winters, however, and stem cuttings are therefore taken in late summer, and root cuttings in autumn (these are kept frost-free). Alternatively, they are propagated by seed in early spring. If sown early, nearly all species and all culti-vars will flower by mid-summer of the same year. The only seed on sale is that of Diascia barberae.
The secret behind in making a beautiful flower garden is to know what flowers you are going to plant and the place where you are going to plant the flowers. For beginners well the best you will do is to start small so that you will be very successful in making a flower garden.
