After a nice long summer, we are all yearning for autumn and all the beauty it brings to our lives. We welcome being outside more – taking in the crisp air and enjoying nature’s bounty. Something stirs in us to make our homes, patios and even our garden areas more welcoming for a season of entertaining and gathering with friends and family.
Matrix® Pansies
Our 29 locations have a vast selection of pumpkins, vibrant new flowers, blooming shrubs, wonderful trees, stylish pottery and all your fall essentials! This time of the year wouldn’t be the same without bunches of Matrix® Pansies filling your flowerbeds and containers. They do really well in the cooler months we have in Texas and will continue to spread their joy into next spring with very little care. The best thing you can do for your Matrix® Pansies is feed them regularly with Calloway’s Premium Flower Food. You’ll love the way they respond to this great blend created to keep those blooms coming!
Garden Mums
Bring home Garden Mums, or Chrysanthemums, to add extra charm to your landscape. They are gorgeous with their full, rounded shape bursting with blooms; and they come in so many enticing colors. Make sure to water thoroughly at the soil level and not on top of the flowers, this will prolong your beautiful blooms. Just like your new pansies, mums love a good feeding. Keep them at their peak with the right balance of nutrients found in Calloway’s Premium Flower Food. You’ll want to spend some quality time with your mums once the blooms fade, simply removing the spent flowers will encourage more buds to form. While you are outside enjoying our cooler weather, grab a pair of pruners and give them a trim just under the spent flower.
Chrysanthemums are so versatile too! Display them in your flowerbeds- they will look spectacular when surrounded by your new Matrix® Pansies. Mums are also ideal as the focal point in a container creation. You can place more Matrix® Pansies around the base of your mum for a spectacular fall look.
Stretch your gardening muscle and try your hand at keeping your mums through the winter. This process is called “overwintering”. Once your mums have given all they have, place them in a bigger pot and then set in a dark, cool location. Your garage will work well for this, just don’t let the roots freeze. You will still want to keep the soil moist so keeping them in the garage will remind you to look in on them. Be sure to water them at the soil level. This is a dormant time for mums, and they will need to be cut down to 3-6 inches. Once we are past the time for a spring frost, set your mums in a sunny spot outdoors. You are now an experienced mum gardener, congratulations!
Petra Crotons
Autumn is the perfect time to spice up your containers! A great recipe for any container is to have a tall focal plant surrounded by shorter plants that will fill in the rest of the area. Then add the finishing touch with plants that trail. Petra Crotons have an incredibly colorful leaf palette and are nice and tall making them ideal as your focal point. Cluster Matrix® Pansies all around it for a nice full look. Finish it off with Trailing Rosemary. Stand back and be amazed at your new Container Creation!
Join the Shrub Club
Look for areas in your landscape where you would like to add visual and textural interest. Shrubs are ideal for adding height and depth, or they can also provide privacy when planted together. Place them at the back of your flowerbeds and you will create a backdrop for all your other plants. What more could you want!
Bonus – now is a great time of year to plant your shrubs. Shrubs take advantage of the soil temperature during these months to grow a healthy root system. Roots will grow anytime the temperature is 40 degrees or higher and in Texas, which gives your shrubs a long time to get strong and established.
Purple Diamond® Fringe Flowers are a great option in our area and they are stunning all year long with their incredible changing foliage. Their showy vibrant pink blooms in spring add more visual interest for you when butterflies and hummingbirds arrive. They are also evergreen, which means they will keep their leaves throughout the winter!
There are many Fringe Flowers to choose from so knowing the size of your desired planting area is very important. They are generally easy-to-care for shrubs so once you have them planted, you can just enjoy the show they put on year after year.
Hawthorns are another beautiful specimen in stores now. The Clean Sweep™ Snowbank™ Indian Hawthorne is a dense gem of a shrub that glows with massive white blooms in the spring that really pop against the dark glossy foliage. Birds love this variety because it provides berries and nectar throughout the year. It is drought tolerant, doesn’t need pruning, can take our full sun, and is disease resistant – all these fabulous qualities make it a great choice for your Texas landscape!
Mulches
Another great gardening tip is to take advantage of the wonders of adding mulch to your flowerbeds. At Calloway’s and Cornelius, you’ll discover 3 great options.
Calloway’s Premium Organic Cedar Mulch; aesthetically appealing, safeguards plants from insects. Calloway’s Hardwood Mulch; dresses up flowerbeds and won’t wash away. And lastly, Calloway’s Pine Bark Mulch which increases acidity levels. Camellias, Hollies, Azaleas, and Magnolias are just a few plants that really enjoy acidic conditions.
Wondering what some of the wonders of mulch are?
- Cuts back on weeds
- Retains moisture which saves on our water resources
- Helps regulate the soil temperature, which protects root systems
- Protects roots of newly planted plants, especially this winter
- Provides nutrients and encourages beneficial organisms, like earthworms, so your soil remains healthy
- Makes your flowerbeds look great
Mulch – It’s that important!
Your lawn is the canvas for every other part of your landscape, and you’ll want to keep it healthy so it will gleam again in the spring. Your lawn is craving some maintenance in the form of fertilizer. The long hot summer days along with long stretches without rain can take its toll. Applying lawn food now does more than you think! While your grass is dormant it will store up these beneficial ingredients to use in the spring when they are needed most. A fall application will inspire your lawn to come back thick and lush. You may even have the first lawn to become green next spring, making you the envy of your neighbors! Fertilizing now will simply give your lawn the endurance and energy to thrive! Calloway’s and Cornelius have two custom blended formulas when it comes to lawn food.
- Calloway’s Premium Lawn Food for new lawns that have been fed less than 3 times. This is great for new homeowners.
- Calloway’s Premium Lawn Food, Phosphorus Free is the best option for established lawns that have been fertilized more than 3 times.
Mowing and watering your lawn is different this time of year as well. You can take a bit of a well-deserved break from mowing so often. Ensure your lawn is mowed to the recommended height for your type of turf and avoid removing more than 30% of the leaf blade. Cutting your grass too short can create added stress, making it less tolerant of drought. Once your lawn stops growing, you can stop mowing.
The lower temperatures will also allow you to water less often since there is less evaporation but don’t stop watering altogether. Lawns should receive about 1 inch of water per week. Watering deeply and less frequently is better for the root system than light, daily watering. This allows the moisture to get down deep into the roots, helping them grow stronger and deeper.
Take a few gardening notes before visiting your neighborhood store. It is always good to plan before your plant. You’ll want to consider a few important elements: soil, sun or shade, and the effect you want to achieve. The friendly experts at your neighborhood locations are there to help you select the right plants for your needs. Calloway’s/Cornelius has more Texas Certified Nursery Professionals than any other nursery in the state. These individuals have a high degree of knowledge and skill in horticulture and are certified through the Texas Nursery & Landscape Association. You can trust their expertise!
We hope that you are inspired and are ready to get back in the garden, we know we are! Visit any of our 29 locations to get started on your fall landscape.
