Seasonal Color Planning Checklist

Color rotations are contract work: two to three changeouts a year, on a schedule, at quantities you can predict to the flat. This checklist covers the North Texas calendar and the prep that separates 90-day color from color that quits in July.

The rotation calendar

Average last frost in the metro runs mid-March, but soil temperature is the real gate for summer annuals — vinca planted in cold, wet clay melts with root rot. Pansies planted after Thanksgiving establish poorly before the first hard freeze; hold the fall window even when October stays hot.

Bed prep checklist

1. Strip spent material and old mulch from the color zone; do not till diseased material back in.
2. First-year beds in clay: till 3 inches of compost into the top 6 to 8 inches and raise the bed 4 to 6 inches above surrounding grade for drainage.
3. Established beds: top up with 1 to 2 inches of compost each changeout — the bed sinks as organic matter burns off.
4. Incorporate a slow-release balanced fertilizer at label rate at each changeout.
5. Confirm irrigation coverage while the bed is empty — run the zone and watch it. Spray in color beds should be low-angle nozzles or converted drip.
6. Rake to finish grade with a slight crown so the bed sheds storm water.

Quantity math

• 4-inch pots at 8-inch centers: 2.25 plants per square foot — the standard for front-of-bed impact.
• 4-inch pots at 10-inch centers: 1.45 per square foot — acceptable for fast spreaders like purslane and trailing lantana.
• Jumbo six-pack material at 6-inch centers: 4 per square foot — pansies and violas where budget rules.
• A 4 x 25 foot entry bed (100 sq ft) at 8-inch centers is 225 plants — order 235 with overage, and note flats-per-variety so the grower pulls single batches.

First 30 days

• Water daily for the first week (see the establishment care article), then per schedule; pansies in warm Octobers still need the first-week soak.
• Deadhead or shear lightly at week four on petunia-type material to force branching.
• Feed liquid at half strength at 30 days if color is pale — high-pH tap water shows fast in iron-hungry annuals.
• Photograph every bed at install and at 30 days. The photo pair is your quality record and your best sales asset for next year's contract.

Run color as a program, not a project: fixed windows, fixed quantities, standing orders, and a one-page bed map per property. The margin is in the repetition.

Standing rotation accounts also protect margin on the pricing side. Lock spring and fall flat counts by property in January and July, and growers will hold allocation and pricing that a same-week order cannot get once a popular color sells out regionally. Pair the standing order with a fixed labor crew for changeouts — a crew that has installed the same beds three times moves through them faster than a crew seeing the property cold, and that speed is where the real margin on a color program lives.