Clubhouse flowers

Up close shot of lantanas from last year

By now, many regulars have returned to the club to play golf or eat or enjoy the weather. The temperatures are climbing again and it looks like winter is finally behind us. So, surely everyone has also noticed that there are some gaping holes in the landscape around the club. Don’t worry, the flowers are coming!

Winter may be gone, but cold overnight temperatures are not. Frost is still a very real concern through much of April. Evidence of that has been apparent in the last few weeks; we had a frost delay each morning from 4/13 through 4/17, and 4/24 as well! These spring frosts can be very damaging to young annuals. Therefore, we choose to wait to plant our annuals around the clubhouse until the threat of a destructive frost is very low.

We also choose the plant material that we use for specific reasons. Our biggest priorities for annuals are deer-resistance and low maintenance. There are many options for flowers, but there are significantly fewer options that don’t look like meals to the deer. It would be very devastating to plant a great spread of flowers around the clubhouse, only to have the deer destroy them in a few nights! Secondly, the annuals that we choose need to be low maintenance. With the size of the property, we do not have the resources to be watering flowers every day, pruning dead blooms off every few weeks, or other minor tasks that some flowers require to look their best. Picking species that are drought-tolerant means we can water them regularly while they are establishing their root system, but after that they can survive almost entirely on rain. Also, species that have flowers that all bloom at once and then all die at once can require pruning in order to expose new flowers. This is time consuming and can lead to a period of time between blooming that is not attractive. Instead plants that have multiple blooms at multiple stages provides consistent flowering through the season.

Example of the lanatanas thriving

Wading through all of the choices in annuals we have arrived at a plant that has performed well for us for several years now: Lantanas. There are a variety of colors to choose from and they meet our other requirements.

We will begin planting the week of May 2nd and within a few short weeks, our flowers will be off and running and taking care of themselves.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please remember to remove any bunker sand that may be stuck to your spikes before walking on the greens.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org