In winter, it’s normal to daydream about lush, blooming gardens. Craving warm days and abundant color comes naturally to most gardeners, especially when limbs are bare and many plants are dormant. In our mind’s eye, we visualize fiery reds, verdant greens, glowing oranges, sunlit yellows and cool blues rippling throughout the landscape.

It’s easy to picture the perfect warm weather garden, but a bit of work and advance planning is needed to make this scene a reality. As weather warms, finalize cleanup chores in all landscape beds, which includes removing the spent foliage, old leaves and mulch from around diseased or pestinfested plants. Dispose of the contaminated materials rather than composting them. Disposal minimizes the risk of spreading pests and diseases to other parts of the garden.

Next, decide what’s needed to realize your garden dreams. Priority number one might me adding plants that will bring warmth and color to your landscape.

Zinnias, for example, produce scarlet, coral or gold-colored blooms that stand up to the hot summer heat. Cosmos sport warm apricot, orange and yellow daisy-like flowers that float gracefully above many annuals and perennials. Coreopsis and black-eyed Susans bring longlasting, yellow-colored flowers to the garden spring through early summer. And heat and drought tolerant Salvia greggii, a hummingbird magnet, produces fiery red-to-coral-colored floral spikes.

Many hardy or marginally tender plants grown in North Central Texas provide a tropicallooking atmosphere once the weather warms. It’s worth adding them to the garden as transitional plants. They flourish when early spring blooms fade, producing flowers until frost. Examples include perennial cannas, hardy hibiscus (rose mallow) and Esperanza (yellow bells).

Cannas sport bright green, variegated or bold-colored foliage along with red, orange or yellow blooms. These 2-6 ft. tall plants are perfect as a dramatic backdrop to shorter perennials, and they are gorgeous when grouped together as a focal point in the garden. For drama, hardy hibiscus produces dinner-plate sized flowers in shades of sizzling red or pink. Esparanza, a shrubsized plant, repeatedly produces numerous golden, trumpet-shaped blooms.

Foliage furnishes garden color when blooms are scarce. Plants such as burgundy-colored coleus, purple basil or chartreuse sweet potato vine thrive in the ground or in containers. Ornamental grasses like Mexican feather grass, Lindheimer muhly and purple fountain grass provide foliage color while offering texture, movement and seed plumes.

You may also add color and movement to gardens by attracting wildlife. Butterflies flutter atop flowers such as blue mistflower, zinnias and milkweed. Bees buzz about salvias and coreopsis. Hummingbirds dart in and out among red autumn sage, hummingbird plant, Turk’s cap and lantana. Remember, nectar-rich tubular or open flowers are especially attractive to bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators. Plants that sport colorful seed heads or berries provide food for myriad wildlife. Shrubs and tall grasses offer shelter.

Gardens exist in your dreams, but to make them come alive, you’ll soon be planning, digging and planting!

Written and Photographed by LGMG Phyllis Webster