Cool Flowers ─ How to Grow and Enjoy Long-Blooming Hardy Annual Flowers Using Cool Weather Techniques

Everyone longs for fragrant spring blossoms – Snapdragons, Bells of Ireland, Sweet Peas, Sweet Williams and other beauties. But few grow them successfully in their own gardens because they haven’t learned the simple techniques that make it possible. Expert flower grower Lisa Mason Zeigler introduces us to the long-blooming stars of the spring garden, the hardy annuals – those flowers that thrive when they are planted during cool conditions (instead of waiting until the warmth of spring). Forget “Some Like It Hot,” she advises, and give them a cool start. Plant them in the right spot at the right time, nestle their roots deep into rich organic soil, and stand back. In no time at all, you’ll have a low-maintenance, vibrant spring flower garden that keeps on blooming when other annuals are dead and gone.

Lisa Mason Zeigler is an author, speaker, and renowned expert on cut-flower gardening. Lisa started flower farming in 1998 and she now produces over 15,000 stems a week in season from her one-and-a-half acre cutting gardens. The flowers from her farm, The Gardener’s Workshop Cut-Flower Farm, are popular among florists and upscale grocery stores and Garden Share members in the Virginia area.