On Wed, 02 Apr 2003 11:19:37 -0500, Darby Wiggins
wrote:

I was considering planing snapdragons, gerber daisies and pansies in my
small garden this year however, the nursery hand told me that these
plants bloom early in the spring and do not remain in bloom for the
entire summer. Is this correct?

Pansies will fail in summer heat. They are best planted in the fall,
and will often flower throughout a mild winter and into early spring.
Many (most?) annual flowers benefit from regular cutting. This means
getting out there and snipping spent blooms (or cutting for indoor
display.) There was a meticulous gardner in my neighborhood (SE
Virginia) who had *something* blooming 11 months of the year, but she
was out working at it nearly every day.

I really liked the look of these flowers and wanted to add them to the
mix of marigolds and impatient that I plan to plant in a bed and a pot
but if they do not stay in bloom for the majority of the summer, I have
no interest in investing in them. There is already plenty of greenery in
the area, so color is what i'm looking for.

Regular Impatiens flourish in part shade (a little sun in the morning,
shade in the afternoon) except for specific sun-tolerant varieties.
Marigolds are full sun flowers. Both do, however, have flowers for a
long time.

For color, I always think Zinnias and Cosmos -- easy to grow from seed
and very generous bloomers ('though Zinnias generally get mildewy
after a while). I've successfully grown 2 crops of Cosmos here --
seeds from the early ones have time enough to come up and bloom later.