How to Grow Flowering Plants

Flowers add beauty to our lives. In our landscape they add definition and focal points. A flowering plant, even if it blooms only for a week or so, draws our eyes to it. Flowering plants attract butterflies and hummingbirds who also add interest and fun to the garden. Growing flowering plants is usually as easy as planting a seed or transplanting a pot from the nursery. The key is finding the plants that are happy where you live and will stay the healthiest and flower the most.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Flower bed, amended with peat, sand or other organic material such as compost
• • The native flowering plants of your choice
• • Trowel to dig a hole
• • Fertilizer made for your part of the world or a good balanced fertilizer like 8-8-8
• • Mulch to conserve water

Selecting your Plants

1. 
   Brugmansia

   Go to a local nursery to select your plants. Most local nurseries stock plants grown locally. Big box stores can stock plants grown hundreds of miles away and they might not be suitable for your town. Local nursery staff are usually knowledgeable about your area and can answer any questions you may have.

2. 
   Asian Lily

   Select your plants according to your garden space. If you have full sun, partial sun or shade, you will need different plants. If you have good drainage or poor, you will need to know what plants to select. Often there is a tag on the plant that will tell you what conditions it likes, how big it gets, and how far apart to plant them. This is also where the local nursery staff can be of great help.

3. 
   Bougainvillea

   Dig a hole where you want the plant to be and as deep as the plant is already. Do not remove the plant from the pot until the hole is dug. Flowers do not like their roots exposed to air.

4. Place the plant in the hole and tuck it in. Be sure you have tamped down the soil well, so no air is in the hole.

5. Continue to plant until all your plants are in the ground. Add fertilzer around the plant, water it in, and mulch. Mulch helps to conserve water.

Tips & Warnings

• Pick plants that are appropriate to your part of the country.
• If a plant is brand new to the nursery or is known to grow just a bit further north or south, buy one that you are sure will flower where you live.