Keep your flowers Blooming their Best

 

 

Late summer doesn’t have to mean the end of your hanging baskets or your flower beds. Now is a great time to get your  container flowers, your hanging baskets and flower beds blooming strong, well into fall. Here's how.

Keep up with the “deadheading”; that is the practice of removing spent flowers to encourage more blooms instead of going to seed. If some of your annuals are looking spindly, cut them back by about half. They’ll bounce back quickly, with more blooms.

Use a balanced fertilizer such as ferti-lome® 20-20-20. This will encourage new growth and flowers.  

If your geraniums and petunias have suddenly stopped blooming, check for evidence of bud worm.

Spray with all natural Thuricide or dust with Dipel to get rid of them.

Slugs can be a problem on your flower plants too.

Apply some Sluggo or Diatomaceous Earth.

Perk up your flower beds with ferti-lome® Gardener’s Special, a slow release fertilizer which should give your plants an ample supply of nutrients to keep them going strong well into fall.  

Planting to attract hummingbirds

 

There are a wide variety of plants which attract hummingbirds, but they are especially drawn to plants with tubular, red flowers.  Here are 5 great "reds"  to attract hummingbirds to your garden:

 

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) Hummingbirds can spot their red colors from far away.  Plant 'Fan Salmon' in well-drained soils.

This heirloom Lobelia (Cardinal Flower) has beet-red foliage and scarlet flowers from midsummer on. 'Queen Victoria'

One look at Red Birds in a Tree and you can see how it earned its name. Once established, it will bloom from spring through fall. Great for xeriscaping.  

Crocosmia produce intense red flowers on long stems. A dramatic addition to your hummingbird garden. 'Lucifer'

Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber) is a compact shrub which blooms cherry-red.  'Jupiter’s Beard'