Louisiana Spring Flowers - Baton Rouge Landscaping

May is when your cool season flowers have officially had it if you live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is time to pull those tired annual flowers and think about what you want to plant for Spring. Add some fresh bedding soil, compost, and your favorite manure to those flower beds. Till the soil well to mix it. Apply some fertilizer pellets evenly across the top of the soil. Your bed is prepped and ready for some new flowers. 

What flowers are you thinking of putting in this year? Here are a few of our favorites:

Angelonia

• Angelonia - Sometimes referred to as summer snapdragons, these flowers provide a good selection of colors. They do great in sunny locations that have proper drainage. They are a Louisiana Super Plant, so you know they will perform.
• Begonias - Do very well in the shade and are very low maintenance. Baby Wing Begonias are a Louisiana Super Plant.
• Blue Daze - This plant stays low to the ground. This plant seems impervious to both bugs and disease. It is a very low maintenance flower and last until the first freeze of winter.
• Caladiums - Also refered to as "elephant ear flowers". These plants have very showy foliage and most varieties do very well in the shade. There are more sun tolerant varieties available if you have a sunnier spot that would look great with a large grouping of color.

Coleus

• Coleus - So many different color and size varieties. These plants are all about colorful foliage. They do need to be trimmed a few times throughout the summer, but they are very showy.

Gomphrena

• Gomphrena - Enjoys full sun. Generates round flower heads that work great as a cut flower choice to use with other cut flowers during the year. Usual colors comes in purple, white, red, and pink.
• Impatiens - Reliable, colorful plant that does very well in shady areas. A new variety called sunpatiens does much better in sunnier areas. As long as these are planted in the correct conditions, they should last easily until fall. I had some that made it until December last year.
• Pentas - Very easy to maintain. They stay in bloom into the fall and attract butterflies. They are a Louisiana Super Plant.
• Vinca - Also known as periwinkle, these flowers are staple landscape fixtures in Baton Rouge gardens in Louisiana during the summer. Unfortunately, they have been under attack in recent years from fungus. Only plant these every other year. If they get fungus one year, take two years off.
• Zinnia - Big and colorful blooms. Look for the newer varieties to get them shorter or with double blooms. Narrow Leaf Zinnias are disease resistant and last most of the summer.

Check the spacing requirements for each flower and plant away. Add a little mulch, such as crushed pine straw. Finally, water in the flowers well. Enjoy your beautiful flower garden this spring and summer!