Hydrangea Gardening Tips

Hydrangea Gardening Tips

Exposure: For better and more blooms, give plants morning sun and light afternoon shade.
Soil: Make it rich and well drained. Add plenty of organic material at planting time. Don’t forget to mulch.
Pruning: Make cuts as needed to control form—late in dormant season for types blooming on new growth, after flowering for those blooming on previous year’s growth. For biggest flower clusters, reduce number of stems; for numerous medium-size clusters, keep more stems. 

Planting Bulbs

Fill your container with a high-quality potting mix (don't use garden soil) and plant your bulbs as deeply as you would in the ground; for instance, 6 or 7 inches deep for tulips and daffodils, and 4 or 5 inches deep for little bulbs such as crocus and Siberian squill. Water your bulbs well after planting.
If you grow bulbs in a container that's too small to spend the winter outdoors, or one that is made from a material such as terra-cotta that needs protection, keep the planted bulbs someplace cold, such as a garage or shed. Don't bring your bulbs indoors; most basements will be too warm for them to develop properly.

Once temperatures begin to warm in spring, you can augment your containers of spring bulbs with cool-season annuals such as lettuce, Swiss chard, pansy, viola, nemesia, or African daisy.
Or pack more punch in one pot by mixing types of bulbs. Plant your bigger bulbs, such as tulips and daffodils, deeper. Cover them with soil, then plant smaller bulbs, such as crocus, grape hyacinth, or snowdrops, directly above them.

Spiderwort

Producing small, perfect, jewel-tone flowers, these beauties open over several weeks. Spiderworts bloom freely, but seldom produce the "wow" factor of some perennials. Group them for the best impact. Provide leafy neighbors to camouflage fading foliage. Warm-climate types make dense groundcovers in Southern gardens.

Light:

Sun,Part Sun

Zones:

4-11

Plant Type:

Perennial

Plant Height:

6-36 inches tall, depending on variety

Plant Width:

8-36 inches wide, depending on variety

Flower Color:

White, pink, blue, violets flowers, depending on variety

Bloom Time:

Blooms spring and summer, depending on variety

Landscape Uses:

Containers,Beds & Borders,Groundcover

Special Features:

Flowers,Attractive Foliage,Winter Interest,Drought Tolerant,Tolerates Wet Soil,Deer Resistant,Easy to Grow

Growing Hibiscus

 

Growing hibiscus is an easy way to add a tropical flair to your garden. When you know how to care for hibiscus plants, you will be rewarded with many years of lovely flowers. Let’s look at some tips on how to care for hibiscus.

Growing hibiscus in containers

Many people who are growing a hibiscus plant choose to do so in a container. This allows them to move the hibiscus plant to ideal locations, depending on the time of year. Hibiscus prefer a cozy fit when growing in a container. This means that they should be slightly root bound in its pot and when you do decide to repot, only give the hibiscus a little bit more room. Always make sure that your growing hibiscus plant has excellent drainage.

Temperatures for growing hibiscus

When you care for a hibiscus, you should remember that hibiscus flower best in temperatures between 60F – 90F and cannot tolerate temps below 32F. In the summer, your hibiscus plant can go outside but once the weather starts to get near freezing, it is time for you to bring your hibiscus indoors.

Watering Hibiscus

When hibiscus are in their blooming stage, they require large amounts of water. Your hibiscus will need daily watering in warm weather. But once the weather cools, your hibiscus needs far less water and too much water can kill it. In the winter, water your hibiscus only when the soil is dry to the touch.

Fertilizing Hibiscus

A growing hibiscus plant needs lots of nutrients in order to bloom well. In the summer, use a high potassium fertilizer. You can either use a diluted liquid fertilizer one a week, a slow release fertilizer once a month or you can add a high potassium compost to the soil.   In the winter, you do not need to fertilize at all.
These are the basics for how to care for hibiscus plants in your garden. As you can see, they are a easy maintenance, high impact flower that will make a garden in any part of the world look like a tropical paradise.

Late Summer Garden

Once the dog days of summer hit, flower gardens generally start looking tired. Colors wash out, edges brown, blossoms become fewer in number. But Catherine Mix needs glorious, color-filled beds from June to September. As co-owner of The Cutting Garden in Sequim, Washington, with her husband, Tom, she tends several acres of gardens that serve as a lush backdrop for weddings and other outdoor events and provide blooms for the bouquets and flower arrangements she creates. So she's discovered plants and strategies that deliver a brilliant show even in late summer. Here are some of her tricks that any homeowner can try:

Make it easy. Mix grows a wide array of plants, including long-blooming annuals like asters, cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers, lisianthus, and celosia. After planting, she mulches once with a 3-inch layer of rich compost to deter weed seeds, conserve soil moisture, and add nourishment. She also grows a number of flowers that self-seed in her beds. "If you don't weed too hard in spring, these come back every year," she says.

Shown: A brick walkway surrounded by vibrant blooms wends its way through an arch in this Spokane, Washington, garden. The plantings showcase some of grower Catherine Mix's favorites for late-season color: towering multicolored dahlias, as well as snapdragons (shown in white) that she keeps in bloom with constant deadheading.

this article is from This Old House site