By Chuck Goecke

The long days of summer challenge even the most seasoned Texas gardener. Patios, pool sides, and decks can seem especially designed to attract and hold heat. North Haven has a number of plants that can actually turn that heat into an advantage and produce more and more color as the summer heats up. With the right set-up, their culture can also be fairly easy. The most important consideration in choosing plants for garden hotspots is the light exposure. Become familiar with each of the places you want brighten up in summer; as the amount of sun may have changed since winter. Morning sun - afternoon shade is the easiest exposure to deal with. For morning sun situations, wax begonias, torenia, bacopa, petunias and million bells, ornamental sweet potato, salvia and sun coleus all work. For all day shade choose shade begonias, impatients, lemon lollipops, persian shield and shade coleus. Sambac jasmine will grow, bloom, and perfume the garden in shade or morning sun. All day sun or afternoon sun are also easy to deal with. Luckily, many sun loving annuals will do best with only afternoon sun. These include lantana, scaevola, zinnia and firebush. A few annuals only seem to thrive in lots of sun, such as periwinkle, dahlberg daisy and portulaca (purslane and moss rose). Plant some areas with cool colors such and blues, lavenders, chartreuse and white, to project a cool serene feeling. In other areas plant with warm yellows and reds and oranges to brighten them with cheeriness and drama. Besides these high performance flowers, North Haven carries a full line of shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, plus the knowledgeable sales staff to help you choose the right plant for you. Additionally, we carry a full line of organic fertilizers to keep these hungry plants in peak performance all summer with reduced risk of fertilizer burn. Also we carry water saver crystals that make container gardens better able to hold up in the hot dry winds of summer. Finally, we carry high quality watering supplies from watering wands to functional and decorative watering cans.