6. POTTING MIX AND FEEDING—SO IMPORTANT

Plant your flowers in planters filled with quality potting mix. The right potting mix ensures your success! I know bagged mixes may be costly, but they offer a consistent balance of water retention, drainage, and aeration. Never use the soil from your garden in your containers. It is too heavy for a contained space. The roots of herbaceous flowers need a light and fluffy potting mix.

Quality potting soil does not normally contain actual soil, which is why we refer to it as a potting mix. Many potting mixes are made up of peat moss, pine bark, and perlite or vermiculite. More and more potting mixes are compost-based, designed specifically for growing in planters. If you want a potting mix formulated from natural ingredients, there are quite a few to choose from. They can include substances such as earthworm castings, mycorrhizae, bat guano, and fish and crab meal.

Healthy, disease-resistant container plants appreciate occasional applications of plant food. Some potting mixes contain slow-release fertilizers that feed the flowers over a long period. You can add starter mix fertilizer (organic starter fertilizer is now available) to the potting mix when you first plant up the pot. You can also feed your plants with diluted solutions of liquid plant food. This fertilizer can be chemical based or organic based, depending on your preference. I am a proponent of fish emulsion, compost tea, and seaweed-based soil additives.

I usually feed plants in containers with a liquid fertilizer or compost tea a few weeks after planting. A lot of plants in a contained space need more nutrition than if they were in the ground. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s directions for using liquid fertilizer. If there is a lot of rain, fertilizers will wash away in the water, meaning you may need to apply more often.

Slow-release fertilizers are helpful fertilizers and can be applied every six to eight weeks. This is a timesaver and reduces the runoff of excess fertilizer into the soil. Slow-release fertilizer can be added to the soil at the time of planting and during the season. It is wrapped in a hard shell so it lasts and lasts.

A word of warning—do not overfeed your flowering plants! Moderation is the key. Too much fertilizer can “burn” your plants, which means plants cannot take up water. Overfed plants are also more susceptible to insects and disease. Plants are like us: we perform better when we are not too full or too hungry. Less is better than too much when it comes to feeding your plants.

“The Amen of nature is always a flower.”

—OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SR.

Red Dragon Wing begonias flourish in this low rectangular container. I plant them here every year—in a partly shady spot—for a constant and striking bloom next to the front door. In deeper shade, they have a looser habit and bloom less generously.

The BIG Red hybrid begonia, shown here with trailing variegated ivy, is an early bloomer with red flowers held above large, glossy green foliage. It blooms all summer in sun or shade. Perfect for containers, the BIG series of begonias are self-cleaning—no deadheading required. Here, the dark red-brown planters set off the green-and-white ivy foliage effectively.