Newsletter Articles
Fast-Growing Plants When You Want an Instant Garden
Written by Kelsey W.
Gardening is an activity you can enjoy for many years, but you may be a little impatient to see the fruits of your labor, especially when you may have to wait months for flowers and greenery. Some plants can even take decades to reach maturity; others might stay small for several years before turning into big, beautiful plants.
Although you might assume you need to simply let nature take its course and wait years to see a full garden, you would be surprised at the speed at which some plants will flourish and grow. Sometimes, it only takes a few weeks before the plants settle in and start making noticeable progress.
Let’s explore some of the ways you can fill your garden with swiftly growing plants and how to choose plants that will love the Southern California climate.
Plants With Flowers That Bloom Swiftly
If you’re filling your garden in the summer, you can find some beautiful flowers that will grow quite swiftly and bloom in what seems like just a few weeks. Annuals that grow lovely blooms in record time include zinnias, marigolds, petunias, and nasturtiums.
Not only will these flowers bloom for months during the warm months, but they’re also easy to find already blooming at your garden center, which means you can bring them home as mature plants and add instant color to your garden.
However, if you’re interested in taking these flowers all the way from seed, they take about two months to go sprout from the ground and begin to flower. The amenable Southern California weather can definitely help them grow swiftly, especially when you add some plant food to your efforts.
What if you want quick growth in your garden, and it’s not the traditional spring or summer planting season?
Some excellent and swiftly growing options for big fall flowers include the ever-present fall favorite chrysanthemums, as well as winter-loving kale, which you can fill your garden with greenness but also provide you with some extra crunch for your salads. Seriously, kale grows like a beast during Southern California winters.
As you search through the plants at the garden center, try to choose plants that have buds on them. These plants will bloom quickly after you bring them home, and they should bloom for many weeks, too, especially if you keep them watered and fed accordingly.
Fast Blooming Spreaders That Fill Your Flower Beds Swiftly
If you have a large, bare area of ground that you’d like to cover – perhaps a gentle hillside that extends down from your home or the land along the side of your house – the coyote brush plant (also called coyote bush) will quickly fill the space.
Not only is this plant ridiculously tolerant of drought conditions but it’s also at home in almost any soil type throughout Southern California. The plant is so drought tolerant that it actually prefers drying out between each watering, which is surprising since it tends to grow in such a big, bushy manner.
Another terrific plant that will spread well and actually triple in size in just a single year is Cleveland sage, which is a plant that’s in the mint family. The bush is nicely fragrant, which can add a nice aroma to your garden, and it also produces beautiful purple flowers.
The only drawback to Cleveland sage is that you’ll have to replant it after about a decade because its lifespan is relatively short. However, if you choose to plant it again, you won’t need to wait very long at all for it to refill your space. While living in your yard, the sage will even help prevent weeds from growing due to its denseness.
For a slightly more dramatic look for your garden, another swift-grower is silver lupine, which grows big, tall stalks of flowers out of its lush silvery foliage. Bear in mind that there are some lupines that grow as annuals, like the famous Texas bluebonnets, but silver lupines are a species that lives for up to a decade, so you won’t need to refill your garden for several years after bringing those plants home.
Quickly Growing Hedges for Your Southern California Lawn
A privacy hedge is a beautiful way to give your family privacy when you’re outside your home, but you probably don’t want to wait several seasons for the hedge or bush to grow and create an effective wall. There are a few different types of laurel trees that grow well in the Southern California climate.
One of the most popular is the English laurel, which is most commonly known in Southern California as the cherry laurel. This plant grows quite fast in the right conditions and can add up to three feet every year to its height.
The thick, green foliage will thrive in almost any Southern California climate except for the very coldest and very hottest areas. They’re not huge fans of snow (so you probably don’t want to plant them if you’re in the mountains).
The cherry laurel grows in a variety of different soil types, and it’s also fairly drought resistant, too, which makes it a happy plant in most environments throughout the Southland. You can encourage these plants to grow even faster by pruning them twice a year.
You can find cherry laurels in a variety of sizes, which means you can purchase large bushes and bring them home for an almost instantaneous privacy wall. You can also find them in smaller sizes, too, which means you’ll wait a few years to enjoy their largest height.
If you’re interested in a slightly more feathery look for your shrubs, you can also choose a skip laurel, which is more shade-tolerant than the cherry laurel and can also survive colder temperatures. Like cherry laurels, the skip laurel is fast growing, and it’s a great choice when you want a privacy wall but you only have a narrow amount of room for your hedge.
Another option for a swiftly-growing hedge is the Ligustrum japonicum or Japanese privet, which is less common in Southern California but also capable of growing more than a few feet in a year. You can actually shape these bushes into small trees over time, but bear in mind that they don’t like getting too dry, so they’ll need a drip line or some extra water whenever extreme drought hits.
What About Fast-Growing Trees?
When we think about fast-growing plants, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t usually a tree. However, if you want to enjoy a yard of beautifully large and mature trees someday, there’s no reason you need to wait a half-century before reaching that point.
Let’s increase our timeframe a little and learn about some trees you can plant that are considered fast growers, as well as trees that will enjoy the environment of Southern California.
One option is the Raywood ash tree, which is a native of the Mediterranean and offers a classic round tree shape. The dark green leaves provide beautiful shade for your home and yard with the tree having a final height of up to 50 feet. Each year, your Raywood ash will add at least two feet to its height.
A tree that grows even faster is the Arizona ash or Fraxinus velutina, which can also grow to a maximum of 50 feet tall and adds an impressive three feet of height every year. If you’re looking for a tree that will make a notable statement in your yard, the Arizona ash is a big, beautiful tree for that purpose.
For yards that aren’t quite as expansive as those required for 50-foot trees, a beautiful tree to consider is the purple leaf plum (or purpleleaf plum), which looks purple throughout most of the year and also attracts butterflies to your yard. These trees grow to a maximum height of 25 feet and will get about two feet taller every year.
Green Thumb Nursery is Here to Help You Create an Amazing Garden
Your garden, patio, or balcony is waiting for you to fill it with beautiful plants. Don’t assume you have to wait an entire season to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Drop by your local Green Thumb Nursery today to learn all about the beautiful plants and flowers that will make your home space green and beautiful in no time.
Do you like what you see? Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get content like this every week!