Ft Ticonderoga King's Garden Flowers - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

January 12, 2012

There are lots of great ideas at Fort Ticonderoga's Kings Garden. There are many annuals and perennials you can grow. Here are some of the best.

One of my favorites is the balloon flower! I love the color combinations that you can get. There is a taller variety in the Fuji series that gets up pretty tall. Most varieties that you get in garden centers are more dwarf, but this is an old fashioned variety. It has nice blue and white flowers, it blooms in mid to late summer so it's a nice one to have in your garden for a little late color. It's great to mix them in with the yellow zinnias. It adds a nice touch. In fact, it's always great to mix in some annuals in with your perennials so you have more consistent color coverage right through the summer. 

A nice low growing perennial flower is the Coreopsis. There's a feathery foliaged one that's been around for a long time called Moonbeam. It has nice lemon colored flowers. There's another one that has more of a rust colored flower. It's called 'Sienna Sunset'. It's relatively new in the market. 

If you like feathery foliage, Agastache is a great flower to grow! This Agastache has a nice, almost reddish colored flower to it, but it's the scent of the leaves that is really nice. It has a licorice scent. 

And finally, if you really want something unusual try the pincushion flower. This is a Summer Fruits mix, and it's got some pinks, reds and even some kinds of burgundy colors mixed in. I like the really dark colored ones. It's a short lived perennial but it's a great one to mix in there with other perennials and annuals because the flowers just float above the foliage.

By Charlie Nardozzi