A beautiful flower garden doesn’t just happen. It takes a bit of planning and works to grow those spectacular blooms. However, if you know how to make it happen, your flowers will bring spectacular colors and fragrances into your garden spot.
Here are eight tips to help you have the flower garden of your dreams.
1.Choose the Right Flowers for Continuous Blooms
If all your flowers bloomed at the same time and then died away quickly, you’d only have a pretty garden for a very short time. Instead, you can have a garden covered in bright blooms all summer long. Simply choose a mix of flowers that bloom at various times throughout the summer. Then, when one stops blooming, another will take its place. One thing you need to pay attention to when selecting your mix of flowers is the flowering time of each flower. The list from Missouri Botanical Gardens shows at a glance when a variety of flowers are in peak bloom.
2.Give Sun-Loving Plants Plenty of Sun
Most flowers and flowering shrubs enjoy full sun. If you put them in the shade, they won’t thrive, their colors won’t be as vibrant, and they may not bloom at all. First, make sure you know how much sun your flowers need. Then, if they need full sun, make sure you give it to them. That means you need to make sure no trees, fences, or any other obstruction will prevent them from basking in the sun. Before you plant, spend some time in your garden space and observe where the sunniest spots lie at different times of the day. You can even make a small sketch of your garden, marking off the areas of full sun, partial sun, and shade. Use your drawing to plot out your garden.
3.Bring on the Pollinators
If you want your flowers to reproduce, you need a pollinator to get things started. Bees gather the pollen from flowers and carry it to other flowers to help them make seeds and reproduce. Butterflies are also great pollinators, with the added benefit that they bring their own unique beauty to your flower garden. While nearly all flowers attract pollinators, some attract them like crazy. Some flowers that butterflies love include salvias, firebush, and queen’s wreath. Bees especially like lilacs, lavender, wisteria, poppies, and snapdragons.
4.Fertilize Roses with a Banana
Roses are among the flowers that don’t do well if they aren’t properly fertilized. You can buy special fertilizer and plant food specifically made for roses. Another way to get nutrients into your rose bed is to fertilize them with bananas. Simply dig deep enough that you can place a banana peel beside your rosebush and cover it with about one inch of soil. The banana peel not only feeds your rosebush but also makes it more resistant to diseases.
5.Give Heavy Flowers Some Support
Full, thick blooms create a wonderland of beauty in your garden. The problem is that some blooms are so heavy that they can’t hold their heads up. You go out to your garden and find your most beautiful flowers dragging the ground. What can you do? Give them a bit of support. Depending on the type of flower or flowering bush, you might need heavy duty stakes or lightweight spikes. There are actually many different types of supports made especially for different types of flowers. Consider whether the plant grows tall and upright or bushy and low to the ground. There are single-stem supports made of bamboo, wood, or metal tied with twine. Or, there are support cages for plants like peonies. Put in the stakes or supports early on, before the blooms have a chance to droop.
6.Deadhead Spent Blooms
Eventually, each blossom will die away. When your plant is still blooming overall but a few blooms are past their prime, you’ll want to deadhead those blooms. All that means is that you take off the old flowers. You have to do it the right way, though, to keep the rest of the flowers looking lovely and new flowers coming on. To do it, examine your flower, looking for unhealthy stems and dead flowers. Cut or pinch away the dead flower blooms right above the highest healthy leaf. Most flowers need to be deadheaded, except for sunflowers, salvias, fuchsias, and a few others. Do this job about once every three to five days.
7.Mulch Your Flower Plants
Whether you are planting annual flowers that die out after one season or perennials that keep coming back year after year, you need to put some mulch around them when you plant them. Just put about two inches of mulch around the base of the plant after it’s planted. The mulch helps reduce weeds, conserve water, and keep the soil cooler.
8.Water Them Right
It’s important to give your flowers just the right amount of water. The question is, how much is that? If the plant has thick stems and leaves, it can hold onto the water for longer. So, it needs to be watered less frequently. However, if the stems and leaves are thin and delicate, it can’t store the water. So, it needs to be watered more frequently. Stick your finger into the soil before you water. If it’s damp about an inch down, you know the plant still has enough water for now. Whatever you do, don’t overwater your flower plant. That’s the most common cause of early plant death, including flowers.
When you plan, plant, and take care of your flower garden properly, it can supply an abundance of beautiful blooms all summer long. Give it some thought before you plant. Plant, mulch, and water as recommended. Deadhead to keep your flowers coming on and your flower plants looking neat. When your flowers are blooming thickly across your garden, it’s time to cut a few blooms and bring them in to enjoy!
Sources:
Missouri Botanical Garden: Bloom Times by Month
Naples Daily News: Wings at Work: Butterflies pollinate plants, but in ways different from all others
Southern Living: 12 Flowers That Are Good for Bees
Pop Shop America: The Easiest Way to Deadhead Flowers
Planet Natural Research Center: Flower Gardening 101
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