Welcome and have a seat. This post is jam packed with lots of great gardening ideas including my 5 essential tips on planting flowers that will bloom all season long!
Before I go too far, if my outdoor seating group pictured above tickles your fancy, you can still get it here and the round wicker chairs can be found here. This will be the third season we’ve had this grouping. It’s a stunner and the cushions hold up fabulously to the elements. They can zip off for the wash but I we’ve never taken them off!
Last week on my Instagram stories, I was at my local greenhouse and talking about all the different flowers I buy and plant around the house each season. I had a lot of questions about the type of flowers I buy to how I care for them once they’re all planted. I thought a blog post would be a good way to give you tips on how to easily plant and grow beautiful flowers all summer long! I should say off the bat, I’m no expert. I simply have enjoyed gardening for 2 decades and through trial and error, I have found what works for me and I am happy to share what I have learned over the years.
Here is a look at past seasons when my gardens were in full bloom.
I’ve always had a love for gardening and for growing beautiful flowers. I’ve come up with an easy formula that keeps my flowers thriving all season. If you follow these 5 essential tips, I’m confident that you too, can have abundant and beautiful blooms in your garden this summer!
Essentials to Start Planting Flowers:
+ Potting Mix ( This is important. I always use and have had the best luck with Miracle Grow Moisture Control potting mix) Sam’s Club often has the best price on the huge bag.
+ Time release plant food and/or water soluble plant food (I swear by this one) or you can use the liquid version here. I use both depending on where I’m watering. I’ll explain in more detail below.
+ Natural Wood Chips or mulch (try to avoid any of the colored mulch – I found out the hard way and it can stain the area in and around your planters after you water.) The wood chips are used for fill at the bottom of your planters and provides adequate drainage of the soil.
+ Decorative Planters – You can find these anywhere. The home improvement stores have a nice selection. My personal favorite place to shop planters is at Homegoods. I also love planters by Pottery barn and Frontgate. We have these from Crate and Barrel and LOVE them! They are so solid and we are going on our third year and they still look new. (I even keep them out uncovered during the winter.)
Tips on Planting Flowers #1: Picking the right flowers
+Finding the right variety of flower for the sunlight conditions of your garden is super important! A flower like a sun loving petunia is not going to flourish in shade and vice versa. It’s imperative to read the the little tags that are stuck inside the pots of the flowers you’re buying.
My favorite sun loving flowers include:
+Proven Winners Supertunia Vista Petunia Bubble Gum
+Sunpatiens – A brand of impatiens that tolerate all day sun (impatiens in general, are shade loving flowers but this variety is bred for sun and produce blankets of blooms that don’t wilt in the heat).
+Geraniums – What’s more charming than a big pot of geraniums? Geraniums require a bit more care as they need to be deadheaded. Their blooms die off and to promote more blooms you have to continuously snap off the dry, dead flower at the stem. When watering a geranium, make sure to water the soil and NOT the flower and plant. Geraniums don’t like wet heads. You’ll notice the flower will droop and get mushy quickly when there is a lot of rain.
+Mandevillas – Mandevillas are flowering vines that grow beautifully on trellises. It’s so interesting to watch them grow and wrap around a trellis. The mandevilla’s flowers are a brilliant pink or red.
My favorite shade loving flowers:
+Impatiens – a regular or new guinea impatiens do well with less sun exposure and heat.
+Dragon Wing Begonia – This is my go to flower! It prefers shade to direct sunlight but can tolerate some daytime sun. It’s the no fail flower. I find the dragon wing flourishes with very little maintenance so if you’re new to gardening, this is the perfect choice!
+Rieger and Tubular Begonias – These Begonias come in a variety of bright colors and thrive in shaded areas.
Tips on Planting Flowers #2: Preparing The Planters:
+One method I found for prolonging the life of the plants I buy is to re-pot them in my own planter! Hanging baskets are beautiful but I find that the the roots can get choked out in the smaller containers they are sold in. By re-potting a hanging basket for example, the flower has more room to grow and spread. This is information based specifically on what has worked for me through trial and error.
+I first start filling the planters with wood chips or mulch. For larger planters I fill it to about half. The reason I use the wood chips is because filling the entire planter with potting soil can make it quite heavy. Furthermore, Potting soil is expensive and you don’t need the entire planter filled with soil. The wood chips also provide nice drainage to the flower which is very important.
Next, the potting soil just gets poured in, right on top of the chips.
We have several huge bowls we set high atop our brick posts at the edge of our driveways. We also have irrigation tubes that run up the columns and drip water directly into the planter when we are watering the lawn. Because I can’t fertilize these bowl by hand each week, I add a slow release plant food into the soil. They are small granules that I shake and mix into the soil. Using this fertilizer, I’m able to fix it and forget it all season. (Later, I’ll show you how I fertilize the flowers that are within reach)
Tips on Planting Flowers #3 – Transplanting the Flowers into Planters:
+As I touched on already, by transplanting flowers into larger planters, I have found that the plant is able to have more room to continue to grow throughout the season.
+All you have to do is use your cutting pliers to snip the hanger off the basket. Carefully and gently use one hand to support the inside of the plant and turn it upside down and it should ease right out.
+Just set it inside your prepared planter and using your hand or a small cup fill in the open areas with more potting soil until the plant is resting entirely in soil.
Tips on Planting Flowers #4 Fertilize:
+Fertilizer is a VERY important step in maintaining your flowers and making them flourish! The slow release fertilizer is good when mixed into the soil. My preference however, is the Miracle grow bloom booster plant food. You can get it in several forms. I like the singles for my watering cans and I also love this feeder that attaches to my hose.
+I pick one day a week and make it a point to fertilize all my planters. In the heat of the summer when temperatures are in the 90’s I will sometimes fertilize twice in one week. I believe this is what produces such prolific blooms through the heart of the summer!
Tips on Planting Flowers #5 – Water, Water, Water
^^You can find this round planter here ^^
+While watering might seem like a no brainer, so many times I have seen people just let their flowers dry up due to forgetting to water or just not feeling like it.
As with everything, it takes a lot of time and dedication to growing beautiful flowers and watering on a daily basis is essential!
It certainly can be time consuming. I like to do it in the morning and if it’s super super hot out, again in the evening. Due to the sheer amount of flowers we have, watering can take me about 30 minutes a day. So, as you might imagine, it’s a commitment but one that is well worth it!
Thanks so much for taking time to stop by today! If you still have any questions about growing or plating flowers this summer season, I’m happy to answer them the best I can. Just leave them in the comment section below or contact me here.
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