> Next: Early Care of Flowers
Post-Planting Care of Flowers
In This Section
In this section, you’ll find discussions, explanations, and directions for early and after-planting care of the flowers and bulbs you’re either about to plant or have just finished planting, including:
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- Early care needed by recently planted annuals, biennials, and perennial flowering plants.
- Post-planting care of flower bulbs in garden beds and landscapes.
- How to protect recent plantings of flowers and bulbs by applying a covering of mulch over the soil in the planting area.
On This Page
Here, you’ll find discussions of the following subjects beneath each of the following titles:
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- Starting Annuals and Perennial Flowers Right
- Why Early Care is Important
Starting Annuals and Perennial Flowers Right
Healthy flowers properly planted in well-prepared beds need special but easy care for several weeks to help them grow and bloom.
Beds planted with seed—annuals, tender perennials, and half-hardy perennials treated as annuals—require daily misting to keep their soil moist until they germinate. Transplants only require watering whenever their soil dries.
Any bulbs you planted in autumn or early spring before your other flowers were added to your beds require minimal care after planting [see Post-Planting Bulb Care].
Other early after-planting care of transplants includes installing drip irrigation, staking tall plants or installing trellises and supports, mulching your beds, controlling weeds that sprout, and protecting tender sprouts from birds, slugs, snails, and certain fungal diseases.
You’ll find everything you need to know in this early-care section [see: Early Care of Flowers, Post-Planting Bulb Care, and Mulching Landscape Plantings].
Why Early Care is Important
Newly planted annuals, biennials, perennials, and transplants have their greatest hazard of failure in the first few weeks.
Seed must be kept both constantly moist and have close soil contact to properly germinate. A day without water means some or many seeds will not sprout.
Seedlings you’ve grown your own bedding trays enjoyed warm, indoor or sheltered conditions. They must be hardened prior to transplanting. This typically takes a week or more.
Container-grown transplants must begin growing and extend their short roots into the soil of your garden beds before they are fully established. During this period, they easily succumb to stress: Drying winds, lack of water, frosts, or excessive sunlight.
As their caretaker, you must protect them with mulch to insulate their roots and hold soil moisture, frost covers when early-season temperatures dip, or shade them from excessive heat and sun.
Tall and vining plants require post-planting installation of temporary or permanent supports, stakes, and trellises.
Also adjust your watering system’s controller and, if you have drip irrigation, provide the right amount of water to each of your new plants. If you water by hand or hose, provide access for each bed to reach all your new flowers.
If weeds sprout that would grow and crowd out your flowers, cultivate around the flowering plants to uproot the weeds and keep your beds tidy.
Fortunately, these early-care needs virtually cease once your flowers begin to grow vigorously, filling in the space between plants, and dominate their neighbors.
Find out more about the long-term care needs of established flowers and bulbs in the following section [see: Caring for Flowers].