Container Plants

Container plantings have grown tremendously in the past few years. And for a many good reasons. The pots can be started early in the season and taken indoors on a cold night. There is no weeding. Pots can be displayed in multiple locations at your whim. Can add asplash of color in a given area where plants might not be able to grow such as a concrete patio.

When planting do not use dirt from the garden and do not use the same soil from year to year. For real success with plants in containers, you first need a good soil mix. For most plants we recommend a soilless mix that we use for allof our plants. It is called Pro-Mix.

Because a container is exposed to the drying action of the sun and wind, your container plants will dry out more quickly than those planted in the ground and therefore need to be watered more often. Check the soil with your finger and when the top 2 inches is dry, water thoroughly. If the soil feels moist or wet, wait a day and check again.

When watering, water must get down through all the container’s soil. Apply the water for a long enough time so that water flows through the soil and out the drain holes. Apply water 2 or 3 times for complete saturation.

By watering container plants more often than plants growing in the ground, you will be flushing out the nutrients at a faster rate. You will need to feed your annuals and perennials every 2 weeks with a water soluable fertilizer such as Peters Fertilizer. Or you can fertilize with a slow release fertilizer such as Osmocote. This slow release fertilizer releases a amall of fertilizer every time water washes over it. It can be applied at planting time and every 6 weeks throughout the season. Application rates are on the container.

Your flowers will need to be deadheaded on a regular basis. Deadheading means to remove faded flowers as soon as possible to keep the plant’s energy directed toward producing more flowers. As you deadhead, pinch out a couple of sets of leaves to create a bushy plant and to encourage many more flowers.

Perennials in planters can be encouraged to bloom for a longer period by deadheading. This makes the plant think it lost its seeds and it will produce more flowers in a effort to make more seed.

If you follow these few simple instructions, your containers will bloom beautifully all season.