How to Deadhead Flowers

The best looking flower gardens will be those that receive generous doses of tender loving care. Weeding, watering, adding compost, and keeping damaging insects out of your beloved blooms are all essential parts of helping your garden put on its absolute best display of healthy, vigorous color. One commonly overlooked practice that will boost your flowers’ productivity is to deadhead spent blooms.

The practice of deadheading simply involves removing dead blossoms from the plant. There are several reasons to do this, including the collecting of seeds for future planting. In addition, a garden in which the dead blooms are removed will look neat and tidy, with the live blooms taking center stage, without distraction.

Beyond these benefits, the procedure adds to the health of the plant in many ways. First, removing the dead bloom triggers the plant to stop sending vital nutrients in that direction. Secondly, those nutrients may then be used to nourish blossoms that are growing or currently blooming, so that they will produce their loveliest offerings for you. The result will be larger, more colorful flowers on all of your plants, both annuals and especially perennials. Rose bushes and flowering shrubs also benefit from the practice.

The process of deadheading is very simple. First of all, wait until the bloom is dead and drying out. Sometimes blossoms are only wilting due to a lack of water. Get out the watering can and revive wilting blooms! However, when flowers begin to turn color or lose petals, they are officially candidates for being deadheaded.

To properly deadhead a plant is very easy. Some gardeners prefer to use pruning shears or a pair of garden scissors to clip off spent blooms. Others prefer to do it solely by hand. If that is your approach, be cautious. First, firmly grasp the plants stem and hold it very stable. This will help to ensure that you do not pull on the plant’s roots, possibly uprooting them or causing damage that will affect the long-term health of your flowering plant. Secondly, grip the dead blossom and dig your thumb into the stem just below the spent flower. Thirdly, snap the stem to remove the dead blossom. With time and practice, you will get to know the level of effort required on each type of flower, and whether using your hands or a tool is the best approach.

Save the spent blooms for their seeds. If you do not plan to use them, a gardening friend might be thrilled to have them. Do not add them to your compost pile, because if the seeds do not fully break down, they might begin growing where the compost is spread – and you’ll have daisies or snap dragons popping up where you least expect them!

Flower Gardening Books

Flowers add inspiring beauty to each day. Growing flowers in your own garden, flowers you selected, planted and nurtured, then watching the plants come into bloom, multiplies the joy received from them many times over. Developing your skills as a flower gardener takes learning and practice, but the effort is rewarded each time you behold the loveliness and enjoy the fragrance of what you have cultivated. These books will make you a better flower gardener:

1. Complete Guide to Flower Gardening (Better Homes & Gardens) by Better Homes and Gardens Books and Michael McKinley: A comprehensive guide to planning, selecting, planting, and caring for flowers. A discussion of garden styles includes traditional, country, naturalist, eclectic, and more. The book contains more than 700 photos and illustrations, and an encyclopedia covering 450 different species.

 

 

 

2. The Big Book of Flower Gardening: A Guide to Growing Beautiful Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Roses, from Time-Life Books: This big, beautiful book offers complete directions for growing healthy flower gardens, with fact-filled and practical sections on each type of flower covered. From preparing the soil, to cutting fresh flowers, to readying the beds for winter, no important topic is overlooked. It’s great for the coffee table when not in use!

 

 

 

3. The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques, by Tracy DiSabato-Aust: This is another large volume packed with stunning photos and illustrations that will instruct and inspire each gardener. It covers in detail the steps the gardener must take to cultivate the healthiest, most productive flowering plants possible. The beginner will not be overwhelmed with this book, and the master gardener will discover new information and techniques, as well. Practical, yet inspiring, this book is a perennial best seller!

 

 

4. Gardening for All Seasons, by the Editors of Creative Homeowner: This book covers all of the basics required for beginner and seasoned green-thumbs alike. The focus is on cultivating a garden that will bloom heartily, spring, summer, and fall, along with the best way to prepare flower gardens for wintering. It is very practical, nicely illustrated, and more affordable than some of our other selections, though not as in-depth. The book covers not only the growing of wonderful flowers in your outdoor garden, but includes a helpful section on maintaining potted house plants.

 

 

5. The Flower Gardener’s Bible: Time-Tested Techniques, Creative Designs, and Perfect Plants for Colorful Gardens, by Lewis Hill, Nancy Hill, and Joseph Desciose: Reading this book is like being mentored by wonderful master gardeners with a passion for what they do, and great ability to explain concepts so that they are easy to understand and apply. This very thorough book is easy to read, featuring a style that makes it feel like a magazine. Step-by-step instructions, abundantly illustrated with photos and drawings, makes for can’t-miss success. The Gallery of Gardens provides pictures of dozens of gardens that will motivate and inspire your own creativity in designing your garden and choosing the plants you want to incorporate into it. Some 260 species are given detailed profiles that will help you select plants you’ll love, and those that will flourish in your part of the world.

Designing Flower Gardens

Perhaps you’ve just moved into a new house and the one thing lacking to make it your dream home is a wonderful garden, wrought from the earth by your own hands, aided by nature’s gifts. Or maybe your existing garden is now overgrown and truly needs a fresh start. Here are some tips for designing flower gardens you’ll enjoy now, and for years to come.

The first step is to evaluate your space. Is it cramped and crowded, or spacious and sprawling? The tighter the area you have to work in, the fewer types and varieties of plants you should use. Crowding a cramped spot with too many plants will increase the sense of being overcrowded. Rather, give plants a bit more space where room is at a premium, and you’ll create a feeling of spaciousness and freedom. In open spaces, densely planted blooms will create an aura of bounty and vibrant abundance. This seems counter-intuitive, but trial and error with this concept will demonstrate its value.

Secondly, make perennials the foundation of your flower garden. To begin with, this saves time planting each year. More importantly, perennials become treasured friends you look forward to meeting anew each spring, enjoying their company during the splendid days of summer, and parting with sweet sorrow in the fall before you put them to bed for the winter.

Next, plot out the horizontal ground space to maintain blooms throughout the season. As you progress through a flower bed, plant early bloomers, then mid-season bloomers, then late bloomers in rotation, so that as the season progresses, a rolling array of color will sweep through your garden. For example, in a 20-foot row, use this type of pattern: early, middle, late, early, middle late, etc., throughout, or try early, early, middle, middle, late, late, for variety. After the first or second year, you’ll know where to fill in empty spots or complement seasonal blossoms with annual flowers. Using this technique, you will enjoy the old and new friends alike. When your garden layout has a front to back motif, be sure to plant taller plants to the back, medium plants in the middle, and smaller, bushier blossoms in front so that your view will never be obscured and you’ll be able to reach each plant to pluck a bloom in its prime or dead-head a plant when it is done flowering for the year.

The fourth step is to add some vertical components to the garden. Rock walls or trellises for climbing plants to ascend add dimension to the space. Even using an existing fence to support plants will suffice, and create a different perspective.

Finally, view your flower gardens as works in progress, a journey toward perfection. Relish the process. Enjoy the journey. Never leave “well enough alone” but continue with trial and error – if cultivating flowers could ever be labeled error – and you will experience enduring enjoyment and deep fulfillment from combining your creative energies with creation’s offering to bring your garden space to life.

Flower Gardening Books :

The Flower Gardener’s Bible: Time-Tested Techniques, Creative Designs, and Perfect Plants for Colorful Gardens

The Big Book of Flower Gardening: A Guide to Growing Beautiful Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Roses

The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Flowers from Seed to Bloom: 576 annuals, perennials, and bulbs in full color

Having a Raised Bed In The Garden

There are some plants that will require good water drainage to grow properly.  For these type of plants, you should consider creating a raised bed.  A raised bed is nothing more than a box that is full of soil and compost that is raised above the rest of the garden.

Creating a raised bed is fairly simple.  You choose the area of the garden where you can to install the raised bed.  Then grab 4 pieces of wood and create a square or rectangular shape out of them.  After that, put soil and and compost in there.  It’s best to wait a couple days for the soil and compost to settle it.  Once it does, you can begin planting the plants.

Beside the garden, there are other places in the yard that you can install the raised bed.  If you are trying to install a raised bed where sod exists, it will be a bit difficult to install them.  You will need to cut the sod around the perimeter of the garden and flip it over first.  To make this job easy, use something with a very sharp edge to slice the edges of the sod and get under it.  Once the sod is flipped over, it is best to add straw to prevent the grass from growing back up.  Once you have the layer of straw on the sod, simply add the soil and compost like you would do to a normal garden.

Planting your plants in the new area shouldn’t be difficult.  The idea of the raised bed is to prevent the roots from extending too far from the original ground level so it won’t saturates easily.  If your plants have long roots, it’s a good idea to make the raised bed higher.

Once the plants is in the new bed, you will see an almost immediate improvement.  The added soil in the raised bed will help improve root development and prevent evaporation from happening.  Having a raised bed in the garden is great way to help the plants that needs proper soil drainage.  It can be a bit of work from the beginning, but in the long run will be worth it.