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Easy-to-grow annuals: A triple play in the flower garden

April 5, 2023

In baseball, a triple play is when a player makes three outs during the same play. They are rare, with only 733 triple plays in Major League Baseball since 1876.

In the flower garden, you can perform your own triple play by combining three easy-to-grow annuals, cosmos, calendula and alyssum. Annuals are flowers that sprout, grow, bloom, and go to seed all in one season and live for only for one season.

Because most annuals are sensitive to frost, you need to wait until after the last spring frost to plant them in your garden.

For the lower level of your flowerbed, start with sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima). Sweet alyssum is a low-growing flower that is quick to sprout and can germinate in as few as four days. The small, fragrant flowers form a bed that attracts pollinators. They are most common as white blossoms but also come in pink and purple varieties. The plants grow just 4 to 9 inches tall. To encourage more flowers, cut the plants back after the first flush of blooms.

Alyssum flowers will often fade in the heat of summer, but bounce back when the weather cools.

Plant them directly in the garden. No need to cover the seeds, just sow them thickly and gently press them lightly into the soil. Mist the seedbed daily until the seedlings emerge.

The second out of your triple play is calendula (Calendula officinalis), a short-lived perennial usually grown as an annual. Because it is edible, calendula is known as “pot marigold” but is not related to the common marigold (Tagetes spp.).

This is a quick-growing flower that can bloom in just six to eight weeks after planting the seeds.

Calendula flowers are a medicinal herb used in lotions and skin creams. The flowers also yield a dye for fabrics. The most common colors are yellow and orange, but there are calendulas with strawberry blonde flowers and even pastel pink and light creamy white.

The final play of your triple play is the towering cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus). Cosmos is a great cutting flower with strong stems and light, almost fern-like leaves. It attracts birds, especially goldfinches. Seashells cosmos has petals that curl up at the edges, forming flutes that give the flowers a frilly fun look.

Picotee cosmos is white with red stripes on the edge of each petal.

Simply scatter cosmos seeds on the prepared ground after all danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed up. Expect flowers in just 6 to 8 weeks after sowing. Cosmos are sometimes slow to germinate, but once up and growing will bloom non-stop until killed by frost.

All three of your triple play flowers will bring in hordes of butterflies, hummingbirds, songbirds and honeybees. Best of all they are each very easy to grow and need almost no maintenance.

Plant a triple play this spring and you will have a garden that is truly a home run.

  • Paul Barbano writes about gardening from his home in Rehoboth Beach. Contact him by writing to P. O. Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958.

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