Helping Out Late Bloomers

There are three ways to make sure you have annuals blooming all through the fall, right up until the hard frost.

1. Be faithful about deadheading and shearing back. In other words, stay on top of it, this potentially boring but effective tiying up will greatly extend the blooming time of most annual flowers.

2. Start a few hardy bloomers from seed in early June. They won't do much until the end of the season, but that's actually what you want to see. Coices include asters, calendula, and coreopsis.

3. Be sure you have lots of plants that don't mind a little frost. After the nasturtiums and dahlias have been reduced to little brown heaps, these flowers will still be out and about town: anagallis, alyssum and calendula.