Hanging baskets and summer planters are the perfect place to display your gorgeous summer flowers. Cascading petunias, hot fuchsias, and cheerful marigolds all look lovely in baskets and pots, but with the hot summer weather we’re currently experiencing, it may not be long before your precious plants are looking worse for wear!
To help you make your hanging baskets and planters last all summer, we have some handy tips for you. These tips also work well for perennials, in planters and baskets, or in the beds.
Deadheading
Deadheading flowers is one of those tasks that most gardeners enjoy. Long summer evenings are a great opportunity to wander around the garden with a pair of secateurs, admiring your handiwork and snipping off dead blooms.
It’s important to deadhead flowering perennials and bedding plants, as it encourages them to produce more flowers. It channels all the plant’s energy back into the flowers rather than growing seed heads. If you let your flowers die on the stems, the plants assume their job is done and don’t bother flowering again. In addition, nothing spoils a nice floral display than a host of dead flowers.
With small bedding plants, you can pinch the flower head and remove it. Thicker stems need cutting. Remove the dead flowers below the dead bloom or just above the next healthy leaves. Watch out for any small buds not yet open; it’s very easy to get snip happy and cut off immature buds as well as dead flowers!
In a large garden, deadheading is a time-consuming task, so make a point of doing it once a day at a time that’s convenient for you. That way, your garden looks lovely and you don’t end up with a lot of dead flowers blighting your view.
Feeding
Plants make energy from sunlight. They also draw nutrients from the soil. You probably use compost for planters and hanging baskets, which is packed full of nutrients, but it is a good idea to give your flowers a boost with some supplementary plant food.
Plant food provides extra nutrients that encourage plants to put on their very best display. Your plants will produce more flowers and flower for longer if you feed them. Plant food comes in liquid or granule form. Liquid plant food is nice and easy to use – add the required amount to your watering can and give your plants an energy drink. If you have planters, buy some granular plant food and distribute it around the base of the plants. Try not to get it on the leaves, as it can burn them.
Watering
When the weather is hot, it is very important to water your hanging baskets and planters at least once a day, but preferably twice a day. Early morning and dusk are good times to water your plants. This gives the water a chance to penetrate the soil without evaporating in the hot sun.
We hope this helps you, but if you need any more advice on how to keep your flowers sprightly this year, just ask the team!
