Keeping Your Annuals Looking Fresh all Summer
Annuals are a great way to give any space color throughout the growing season. However, some gardeners struggle with keeping their annuals looking how they did when they left the garden center. Annuals shouldn’t be a hassle. It only takes four steps to keep your annuals fresh and vibrant.
Know your annuals
The first step to growing annuals successfully is knowing some information about the plant. You don’t have to be an expert on everything you grow, but there are a few key details you need to be aware of. The sunlight requirements and the mature size are the main things you should be aware of. If the annual doesn’t have a tag that will tell you, ask a 43 Farms employee and they will be able to help you out. Knowing how much sun and the size of an annual will determine where it fits into the garden.
These begonias prefer a spot out of direct sunlight, great for a porch!
Water your annuals
The easiest way to fail with annuals is by never watering them. Annuals need water. Annuals grown in containers need more water than annuals grown in the ground. Most hanging baskets or planters that you find at the garden center have roots that have filled out their pot. This means they have an even higher water demand. Be sure to water the soil in containers when the top 2″ are fully dry. For in the ground, water when the top 4″ are dry. Be sure to check your annuals for water daily, especially in the heat of summer. Do not water if the soil is already wet. If you water before you’ve given the soil time to dry, you increase the risk of root rot.
Overwatering can often show yellow colors in leaves, while underwatering typically shows crisping and browning.
Feed your annuals
Just like people, plants need to eat. Each flower that your annual produces costs nutrients and energy. In order to keep those flowers constantly coming in, it’s important to fertilize. There are many options for fertilizer. When you are using containers, slow release and liquid fertilizer work really well together. Use Flower-Tone in combination with Jack’s 20-20-20. In the ground, use Coast of Maine Annual mix, or Flower-Tone.
43 Farms uses Jack’s 20-20-20 to feed their annuals
Clean your annuals
Cleaning can be the most tedious part of growing annuals and often deters a lot of people. However, by following the other steps diligently, you won’t have to clean as much.
Why do we have to clean? Firstly, it’s important to remove any dead, damaged, or diseases parts of the plant. Secondly, we clean the plant to keep the flowers in bloom. Each flower is a reproductive structure. The goal of each flower is to make seeds, so new flowers can grow. When each flower “dies” it’s really just producing seeds. By cutting the seed pod before the seeds fully develop, it encourages new flowers to emerge. Since annuals die off in the winter, they try to produce as may flowers and seeds as they can before then. Cleaning old flowers sends a message to the plant to keep on making flowers.
These petunias explode with new growth after a good cleaning.