In our climate, Zone 8b in South Carolina, many plants are winter hardy. Shrubs and trees such as gardenias, magnolias, and camellias appreciate the cool of our winters. The heat limits plant survival more than the cold does in South Carolina. Lupines, delphinium, lilacs, tulips, and other traditional shrubs and flowers of Northern gardens won’t live here–or if they do survive they certainly will not thrive.
I used to try to fight nature but I have learned to accept it and to manipulate the weather and plant preferences as much as possible. It is possible to grow tulips here, but you have to chill them yourself or buy pre-chilled bulbs, and they won’t perennialize. Delphinium can also bloom in the spring, but they won’t make it through the summer.
Traditional garden books say to sow the seeds of snapdragons, Sweet William, larkspur, feverfew, foxglove, rudbeckia, and numerous other spring blooms “as soon as the soil can be worked in spring.” This always mystified me because my soil can always be worked–it’s never frozen. Through trial and error, and through the writings of other Southern gardeners, I finally figured out the correct time to plant which seeds. Lisa Mason Zeigler, of The Gardener’s Workshop wrote the book “Cool Flowers” which explains everything about growing these spring bloomers successfully.
If you wait to sow the seeds of spring blooming flowers until spring in South Carolina, they will either die in the heat, never bloom, or else they will bloom on 10-inch tall stems. In her book Lisa Zeigler talks about how women used to know which flowers could be planted in the fall and which ones needed to wait until spring but, as women went to work full time and stopped having a family garden they lost this information.
Both of my grandmothers continued to garden and taught me to plant larkspur in the fall and to not bother with planting it in the spring because it won’t bloom. Flowerbeds surrounded their homes and I spent many of my visits with them wandering in the yard with them and pulling weeds.
Preparing soil properly into which you will plant flowers in the fall to overwinter and to bloom in the spring is one of the most important aspects of creating great spring blooms. In our climate, rain falls in the winter. We all know this. The soil never truly becomes dry, and one reason I enjoy growing flowers over the winter is that once I get them through October and November, they are pretty self-sufficient and do not require watering.
All soil appreciates as much compost as you can afford and an all-purpose organic fertilizer. For overwintered flowers, however, excellent drainage is imperative, and the best way to do this is to raise the level of the flowerbeds above the surrounding soil. In previous years, I used rakes and some teenage labor to create raised beds. This year, I have a bed-maker for the tractor. I am pretty sure I heard the angels singing when I drove it down the bed the first time and saw the raised bed it created that would have taken me, alone, several hours.
Tractors and hours of bed preparation aren’t necessary for the home garden, but here are some tips to give your flowers the best start in life. Hurricane Helene (as well as her sister Debby in August), showed us where water pools in our yards. Don’t plant your flowers there.
If possible, slightly mound the soil in the area where you will set out your flowers. I do not apply mulch around newly planted flowers until they start to put out new growth and are tall enough to stand above the level of the mulch. I use pine straw mulch in my garden, but if I used woodchip mulch, I would leave a ring of exposed soil around the base of the plant to allow airflow. Remember that mulching to retain moisture is not necessary in the winter. More plants die in our climate due to overwatering than due to the cold. Fertilize them in the spring when new growth begins. All spring annuals want to live in full sunshine.
