It's Okay To Buy Those Half Priced Annuals
Long weekend plant sales are everywhere, half-priced at the grocery stores, nurseries, and box stores. Everyone is trying to offload their lanky, limey, sad looking annuals and bedding plants.
This week, I found myself needing to a few more flowers to add a little something something to the greenhouse. So I ventured forth to see what I could find ...
Geraniums are always a safe bet, even if they are lopsided, yellowing, lanky, and/or not flowering. They also happen to be one of my favourite annuals for pots and planters.
Both ivy and zonal geraniums can quickly be cleaned up, made to look good. Having a party in a couple weeks? No problem. They will be ready to rock your party.
A pinch here and there, they will pop right back as if nothing ever happened.
Other sun loving plants that I might look at ... verbena, scaevola, lobularia, and perhaps those short dahlias. If you have a soft spot for petunias or calibrachoa, go ahead and pick them up, too.
For shady spots, I search out fuchsias, begonias, lobelia, and new guinea impatiens. They are easy to clean up and make look good as new.
Pinch back lanky growth by half to promote new branching and bushy growth. This works on everything, but is really important for trailing plants.
Remove all yellowing leaves, dead or brown bits, snap off tired looking blossoms.
Pot up into fresh potting soil with a pinch of slow release fertiliser. Water well with plain water or a mild liquid seaweed/water solution. Do not give them any other fertilisers at this time, you want them to root out and start making new growth before you feed them.
Cleaned up and looking fine already. In two weeks time, these half-priced babies will be bushy, flowering, thriving, so glad to have been rescued from the compost bin.
Love geraniums, and really, really love white...
Go ahead to buy them! Be not afraid. There is nothing wrong with most of those plants that a wee bit of tlc will not fix.
Geraniums are always a safe bet, even if they are lopsided, yellowing, lanky, and/or not flowering. They also happen to be one of my favourite annuals for pots and planters.
Both ivy and zonal geraniums can quickly be cleaned up, made to look good. Having a party in a couple weeks? No problem. They will be ready to rock your party.
Other sun loving plants that I might look at ... verbena, scaevola, lobularia, and perhaps those short dahlias. If you have a soft spot for petunias or calibrachoa, go ahead and pick them up, too.
For shady spots, I search out fuchsias, begonias, lobelia, and new guinea impatiens. They are easy to clean up and make look good as new.
Pinch back lanky growth by half to promote new branching and bushy growth. This works on everything, but is really important for trailing plants.
Remove all yellowing leaves, dead or brown bits, snap off tired looking blossoms.
Pot up into fresh potting soil with a pinch of slow release fertiliser. Water well with plain water or a mild liquid seaweed/water solution. Do not give them any other fertilisers at this time, you want them to root out and start making new growth before you feed them.
Cleaned up and looking fine already. In two weeks time, these half-priced babies will be bushy, flowering, thriving, so glad to have been rescued from the compost bin.
Love geraniums, and really, really love white...
#geraniums #pelargoniums #makethemhappyagain #savethemfromthecompostbin
Happy growing!
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