How to Keep your Flowers Blooming
Don’t let your garden plants run out of steam, it’s pretty simple to keep them flowering all summer, you just need to be attentive to their needs.
Step 1
Ensure that the pots or planters you are growing your plants in are large enough to support the plants. Plants need plenty of root space and a good growing compost to perform properly. Quality compost contains nutrients to support plant growth for the first few weeks; this then needs replenishing with additional plant nutrients to keep your plants flowering. Try West+ Container & Basket Compost & 4 Month Feed for great results.
Step 2
Keep your plants well fed. Use a plant food that contains high levels of potassium (K) to promote flowering. Check the label and choose a quality feed that is designed for flowering plants for the very best results. Gro-Sure All Purpose Plant Food is a great choice (NPK 5-3-8), with extra potassium for flowers and fruit. Don’t cut corners, the motto for summer is feed, feed, feed.
Step 3
Remove spent flowers. Plants have only one mission in life and that’s to produce seed, so if you remove every dead flower then the plant needs to make more flowers in order to set seed. It really is that simple. Some plants, such as sweet peas will stop flowering completely as soon as seeds start to develop. It doesn’t work with everything and is more successful with annuals than anything else but deadheading keeps the garden tidy anyway.
Step 4
Be a bit picky about what you buy and where you buy it. Look out for plants that bear the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) these are great, reliable garden plants. Choose seeds from a reputable seed company and choose varieties bred for great performance. Unwins have a great range of flower seeds to pick from try Unwins Love in a Mist or browse the seed flower range.
Step 5
It might be too late this season, but next year try successional sowing. Sow a few seeds of annuals every 2-3 weeks, so that when the early sown plants finish flowering, the later sown plants take over and keep performing into late summer and autumn.
