Here in Central Virginia we have had relatively cool spring. Throw in cloudy wet weather for most of the month of May and you have slow growing vegetables and flowers with few blooms. On the plus side, you haven’t needed to water much if any!
Problems to watch for…
Fungus and blight: most likely to appear as brown or yellow spots on or even holes in leaves. Primarily cause by water and moisture standing on leaves. If you haven’t seen any of this on your flowers or shrubs yet, count yourself lucky. If you are seeing this, it’s nothing to be overly concerned about as it will normally correct itself with a little time and patience (those unsightly leaves will fall off and be replaced)! Yes, you can spray a fungicide but that won’t fix the damage that’s already done. The ultimate and best remedy is sunny, dry days with a slight breeze plus a little patience!
Yucky Blooms: Geraniums are great examples of this… rain tends to beat up blooms and cause them to fade rapidly often becoming a sticky mass of dead flower pedals. Roses often see their flower petals entirely beat off by heavy rains. Either way, it’s important to deadhead and clean up flowers after periods of rain to keep them looking good and encourage more blooms!
A quick note on vegetable gardens:
Vegetable gardens have more or less just sat there and not grown much… in general plants are looking lush and healthy but just haven’t done much yet. The soil temperature is still on the cool side for most vegetables. Soil temperature, though never thought about by the average home gardener, matters as much or more than air temperature! Bean seeds have struggled germinate due to cool temperatures and wet weather leading to seed rotting before it ever had a chance to come up… Don’t give up, you can normally still get a good crop of most beans even planted as late as mid-July!
If any of your flowers or vegetables have fallen victim to this rainy, cloudy spring, rest assured Gary’s Garden Center still has a great selection of flowers and vegetables! We plan on keeping vegetables in stock through about the 4th of July and a good selection of summer annuals until mid-August! Stop by, say hi, lean up on the counter and let’s talk all things flowers and vegetables!
