How are your flower beds and pots looking? By late July many summer annuals are beginning to look a little rough… The good news is, with a few easy tricks, you can revive them and enjoy beautiful blooms now until frost this fall!
🪴🍴 Plants need to eat too!! The real secret to keeping flowers happy and healthy is fertilizer! We recommend Osmocote but most any all-purpose fertilizer should do the trick when used according to the directions!
✂ Flowers such as Geraniums, Pentas, Verbena, and Zinnias, should be deadheaded as the blooms fade/die. Others such as Begonias, Coleus, and Petunias appreciate the occasional “hair cut” – pinch/clip out a few branches here and there and they’ll stay a lot thicker and fuller!
Petunias are a classic example! While most Petunias available today don’t have to be deadheaded, they do tend to get leggy with yellowing/thinning leaves and blooms only on the outer edges. Cut them back considerably, now is not the time to play nice on Petunias! Take a weed eater (or hand pruners) to em’, throw some Osmocote on em’, sit back, and be amazed!
The same is true for your mounding / upright summer annuals such as Begonias, Coleas, and SunPatiens. If they have become tall, leggy, and/or thin you should pinch them back, throw a little Osmocote of them and be amazed at how quick they will flush back out bigger and bushier than ever! There’s no magic spot to pitch them back to but don’t be afraid to be aggressive!
💧 Improper Watering can cause a range of problems… First and foremost, never water over the top of a plant. You should always try to keep the foliage and blooms of a plant dry by when watering. Too much water on a plant’s foliage, especially overnight, is breading grounds for fungus and disease that can spotting and discoloration… Blooms that get watered over the top will fade much faster. Unfortunately, Mother Nature does not listen to this advice…
Overwatering and under watering can also add stress to a plant making it more susceptible to insect and disease problems – for watering 101 click here!
