Gardening Tips From Bryant Park

Aug. 24, 2007 — -- New York's Bryant Park has played host to "Good Morning America's" Concert Series all summer long, but there's more to the park then the glitz and glamour of the performance stage.

Bryant Park is home to some of New York's most beautiful gardens and horticulturalist Maureen Hackett shares some of her secrets on how to make your garden at home equally beautiful.

Provide a backdrop for flowers and perennials in the garden.

Flowers are best viewed against some type of backdrop or structure. This could be a brick wall or evergreen taxus or yew. Create a dense green backdrop against which you can better appreciate the color and texture of the various annuals and perennials.

Boxwoods are also great as an accent amid the perennials and annuals — you can even mass them on the corners. Grass is the ultimate green backdrop, and it's popular for good reason. It gives the eye something to rest on. In a residential setting, a narrow strip of grass in front of a flower border, or between a hedge and the sidewalk, can be pleasing to the eye!

Organize plant heights in conjunction with the backdrop the plants are up against.

Flowers and shrubs with white flowers are very effective, easy to use and provide a great backdrop for everything else. It's a clean look — soothing and elegant. Reserve the feeling of green for the winter months.

Don't incorporate too many varieties and colors in a display.

"Mass" plants: Try to always combine at least three to five of each type of plant. Often, larger groups are appropriate — group three of one plant and then accent with one of another. Repeat elements so as not to combine too many textures and colors — you want contrast but you also want things to blend.

Prune when it starts to cool down.

Toward the end of August and September, when it starts cooling down, start to think about pruning. Pruning in the summer could lead to foliage burns because when the cut burns it can weaken and introduce disease.

Dead-Head Plants: Take the old flowers off.

By late July and into August, annuals like petunias and salvia often need a haircut. They start to look leggy, and the stems get moldy. In the case of petunias, use a hard pruning with a hand pruner, followed by a shot of fertilizer. They will look a little sad for a short while, but within a week or two they bounce back much stronger and with new stems full of flower buds. In the case of blue salvia guaranitica, for example, dead heading of the older, decaying flower heads every week or every other week is sufficient to keep them going. A shot of fertilizer midsummer is always helpful.