Enjoy Your Annuals
June 2019 by Shelley Corey, Owner of The Mum Farm
By the time you are reading this, I will have already planted a couple thousand mum cuttings in preparation for the fall season. I certainly hope we have warmer, drier weather. I’ve grown mum crops in all kinds of weather… farmers get used to rolling with all of Mother Nature’s punches!
Your annual plantings should be growing strong by now. The most important thing I can share with you is the need to continue to fertilize your plants, no matter what kind of weather. By now, you should be fertilizing weekly with a water soluble fertilizer. Remember to fertilize even if the weather has been nothing but rain. You would think that it sounds counter-productive to add more water, but you really should fertilize the first sunny day after a rain…the soil in your container can only hold so much moisture….if you add more, the excess will come out the drain holes. If you add fertilizer, you will be forcing rain water out the drainage holes so that the roots will immediately begin sucking up much needed nutrients from the fertilizer. The key is simply to remember to fertilize. You need proper nutrition, and so do your plants!
This might also be a good time to start a gardening journal. I wouldn’t be anywhere without all my notes on what I grew, what colors I liked, what performed the best, what ideas I saw when I was out and about! It certainly takes a lot of the stress out of gardening, if you can shop next spring with a list. A list of your pot sizes, where you placed them, sun or shade , and what performed well will be very useful in the future. I just love it when someone comes in with a list. I’m always ready to suggest new additions, but knowing what has performed well and what hasn’t from year to year is crucial so you don’t keep purchasing the same plants over and over! You may absolutely adore petunias, the big full trailing kind, but you haven’t had success. They get stringy and lose their flowers quickly for you. That tells me that you are putting a sun-loving plant in the shade. If you had bought a shade loving plant for that location, you would have been so much happier with the outcome. It’s as simple as moving the petunia hanging basket to a sunny location and using begonias or impatiens in their place!
When I make a suggestion to use begonias, someone will inevitably say they hate begonias. I’m sure they are referring to the old-fashioned wax begonias. Those are very outdated! The newer begonia varieties will “wow” you! There are landscape begonias that get a foot tall and a foot wide. Beautiful double upright begonias that will take sun OR shade, and let’s not forget the gorgeous trailing begonias! The perk with all begonias is that they are drought tolerant! So, let’s say that again…the new begonias will take sun or shade and are drought tolerant along with never needing deadheading! I’m enamored with them! I think you will be also. Write it down on your list to give at least one of them a try next year!
Gardening requires trial and error, but making good notes from year to year certainly helps. I’m off to make my notes on this years spring crop. Some pictures with your phone might help jog your memory next spring. You’ll smile and remember those beautiful blooms every time you search your photos. Congratulations, you’re becoming a great gardener!