Of all the ways to boost your home’s curb appeal when you put it on the market, what could be quicker or less expensive than installing some colorful garden flowers? Watters Garden Center conducted a survey to discover which flowers are most appealing to house hunters. In addition to trimming your trees and shrubs and freshening up your mulch, consider adding value to your home by adding one or more of these flowers to your perennial beds or front porch containers that add fragrance and wow potential buyers. The plants can add thousands of dollars to the selling price of your home and fuel a bidding war that sells your home fast.
1. Roses
Roses have a universal appeal to homeowners, even those who aren’t into gardening. Although old-fashioned and heirloom roses look stunning with their cabbage-sized blooms and sweet perfume, the installation of a few modern ever-blooming roses is a smart choice when preparing to sell a home. Roses like Easy Elegance series, Knock Out and Flower Carpets give sellers the most reliable rebloom. These roses are also nearly disease-proof, meaning you won’t have to worry about an unsightly mildew breakout blighting your landscape.
If you don’t have time to deal with perennial roses, plant a few containers of annual moss rose, Portulaca grandiflora. This annual bloomer shows off during the hottest, driest months of the year, and its succulent foliage shrugs off pests and diseases.
2. Lavender
Not all of us are lucky enough to live in Provence, but we can import the lavender flowers famous in the south of France to our gardens. Not only will your lavender flowers woo home shoppers with their glorious scent, but you can also tell admirers that the blossoms are edible too, lending a delicate perfume to honey and sorbet. Lavender needs little else besides full sun and well-drained soil to grow. If your plot is damp or slightly shady, pansies will provide the same purple hue and culinary value as lavender.
3. Fuchsia
The pendulous blooms of fuchsia flowers are sure to grab the attention of potential home buyers. Fuchsias like moderate temperatures, moist soil and an area sheltered from the wind. Without these conditions, the plants are prone to bud drop. If you aren’t sure about maintaining these divas during your home’s listing period, substitute a trailing begonia plant in a hanging basket. Dragon wing begonias don’t mind hot spells, and their succulent foliage won’t wilt if you miss a day or two of irrigation.
4. Tulips
These “dig and done” flowers can be your secret weapon if you have a planting window in the fall before you put your house on the market. Although tulips are a spring-blooming flower, the season can be stretched over a period of several weeks by planting a selection of early, mid and late blooming tulips. A sample of a long-blooming tulip planting would include early species tulips, midseason triumph tulips and late-blooming parrot tulips.
5. Sweet Peas
In today’s world of odorless hybrids, the fragrance of sweet peas can bring back nostalgic feelings of grandma’s garden. Might these feelings translate into a potential offer on your home, maybe two? It’s worth risking a seed packet to find out. If you’re past the cool spring weather that sweet peas crave, substitute fast growing nasturtiums for summer listing periods.
6. Lilies
True lilies look like exotic flowers, but are very hardy perennials that can survive temperatures of 40 below zero. Early summer blooming Asiatics are the hardiest, and can ever survive in Alaska, while late-blooming Oriental-trumpet hybrids require less chilling time to form blooms, and will thrive in desert conditions of the mountain Southwest. Or, substitute carefree daylilies, which don’t mind the relentless heat and drought.
7. Jasmine
The common jasmine we love for its sweet perfume is not a frost-hardy plant, but an Arabian jasmine plant will flower throughout the summer in a partly sunny spot. Grow the vine in a large pot that you can move indoors for showings, and the flowers will emit a soft perfume in your home. For a hardier specimen, plant the lookalike sweet autumn clematis, which has similar looking fragrant flowers.
8. Pelargoniums
Also known as geraniums, this favorite bedding plant is a natural choice to brighten borders, porches and pool areas. A full sun exposure with good air circulation is a must for these annuals, so if your lot is shady, substitute the perennial cranesbill geranium.
9. Hydrangeas
Plant a compact type like Bombshell by your front door or anchor the corner of your landscape with the large shrub Grandiflora. Blue varieties need acidic soil to produce blue flowers, so keep some aluminum sulfate on hand if your hydrangea flowers are pinker but equally pretty.
10. Sunflowers
A sunflower patch ties together a cottage garden the way few other flowers can. In addition to making a robust floral statement from a distance, you can use sunflowers to screen an unattractive utility box or air conditioning unit. Sunflowers grow in all climates, but you need to give these plants time to mature when starting from seed.
There you have the Top 10 bloomers that homeowners like to imagine when shopping your home. A little lipstick type fragrance and color before listing can undoubtedly result in more green for your wallet.
Until next issue, I’ll be helping local gardeners get more enjoyment and value out of their home here at Watters Garden Center. QCBN
By Ken Lain
Ken Lain, the mountain gardener, can be found throughout the week at Watters Garden Center, 1815 W. Iron Springs Rd in Prescott, or contacted through his website at WattersGardenCenter.com or FB.com/WattersGardenCenter .
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