2008

Cabbage Granule Adding seasonal color to your landscape can be a challenge in arid southern Idaho. Drought, unrelenting

summer heat and poor soil conditions can make the splashes of seasonal color you visualized when you planted end up looking

like fried vegetables. For an example of how to do it right, check out St. Luke's Boise Regional Medical Center. The

hospital's Downtown location is known for its vivid displays of seasonal color - spring, summer and fall. St. Luke's doesn't

hire a service to keep its flowers beautiful; it has a full-time crew of five, headed by lead groundskeeper Ryan Rodgers.

"Our philosophy is that people's views on the quality of care begin when they first walk up the sidewalk," Rodgers said.

"First impressions are important, and flowers make a great first impression." Spring color begins in the fall at St. Luke's,

with groundskeepers planting 25,000 tulip and daffodil bulbs and more than 5,000 4-inch pots of pansies. It takes a month to

get them all in the ground. "You don't have to plant new bulbs every year to get blooms, but people expect such a brilliant

display here that we take the trouble to do it," Rodgers said. "If you don't, you're not going to get blossoms as bright and

maybe not as many of them." Rodgers and other workers plant the bulbs 6 inches deep. They plant the pansies 4 inches deep,

above the bulbs, and use a mix of early- and late-blooming varieties to make the colors last longer. The pansies start

blooming in late February, the tulips about a month later. Don't fertilize at planting time. Rodgers recommends slow-release

fertilizer granules, starting in late March, with additional applications every two months during the growing season. About

the middle of May, the groundskeepers begin to remove the pansies passersby have been admiring all spring. "People don't like

it because they still look beautiful when we pull them up," Rodgers said. "But pansies don't like the summer heat, and we

have to get ready for our summer color." That would be petunias, geraniums, marigolds, alyssum, verbena, dahlias and daisies,

roughly 5,300 of them. For shady areas, he recommends impatiens, coleus and primrose. Purple fountain grass adds colorful

accents that grow about 3 feet high. Workers apply compost and rototill the beds before planting the summer flowers. "We use

Garden 'n Bloom compost," Rodgers said. "Put an inch or two on top of the soil, rake it in and then till it." At St. Luke's,

the tulips are tilled under. If you don't replace your tulip bulbs annually, Rodgers suggests planting them 8 inches deep and

letting the foliage wither each year after the tulips bloom. Cutting it back before it withers weakens the plants. To keep

petunias from getting "leggy" (long and gangly without many blooms), pinch vines back to the desired length. Always pinch

just above a leaf, so the leaf is the last thing on the vine. Diligence is required; St. Luke's hires two seasonal workers to

keep up. "The trick is to get on it as fast as you can and stay on it," groundskeeper Efren Zavala Jr, said. "It's like hair;

the longer you let it go, the more maintenance you'll have. It's all about maintenance." If your soil doesn't retain

moisture, Rodgers recommends adding Perlite, an organic garden soil aerator with high water-retention properties. An

application every few years should be sufficient. How much water do flowers need to thrive in southern Idaho's long, hot

summers? "Fifteen to 30 minutes a day, depending on the type of soil, exposure to sun and the number of other plants using

the water. If you need 30 and you can stagger it into 10-minute blocks with 15 minutes in between, that lets the water run in

and prevents runoff. Newer sprinkler clocks are set up to let you do that.