Rare gems will brighten up your garden with Spring love.
If you are like many of us, then you are living a hectic and pressured lifestyle with little time to potter around in the garden. Why not allow gems such as petunias and other seedlings to brighten up your garden without breaking the bank?
Petunias are one of those rare plants that reward the owner with masses of blooms and require very little care. They are available right now – on a special red carpet promotion – at Tulip Garden Centre.
Petunias may be planted in full sun or semi-shaded spots and will create immediate eye-candy! They are available in colours ranging from pretty pink to the brightest yellow. Petunias are one of the most recognisable and popular of bedding plants because of their hardiness and beauty.
Tips to success for petunias and other seedlings:
- Never plant new petunias in a bed, container or window box where you have just removed a successful petunia display. Rather give that soil time to renew itself from any potential disease build-up as roots left behind by old petunias are inclined to build up pathogens that will attack new plants. Use new potting soil such as Culterra seedling mix available at Tulip Garden Centre.
- Remember to feed your little gems with Culterra seedling food and micro nutrients 7:1:5 (19) which is organically certified. Add a little tender love and care with ‘Go organic natural seabird guano’ from the Tulip Garden Centre.
- Successful pot displays always require the soil to be prepared well. Good drainage is a prerequisite. Ensure container holes are not blocked before planting. Soils that do not dry out quickly should have plenty of compost and river sand added to assist drainage. Too much water is a death knell to Petunias.
- Petunias will reward when well fed, so a good general purpose fertilizer should be mixed into the soil before planting. For those who want a spectacular show of blooms, a foliar feeding programme will give best value for money.
- When buying seedlings, avoid yellow-leafed petunias or any that show signs of ‘damping off’ in the trays. Select compact, stocky plants. Tall, spindly plants take considerably longer to recover from transplanting.
- Do not pull seedlings out of the tray by their stem or leaves as this will damage them. Rather push them out from below.
- Don’t bury the stems of the seedlings when planting. Rather plant to the depth that they are in the seedling tray.
- Use Koinor insecticide.
- After planting, water regularly until seedlings are established. Once established the secret behind successful petunias is to allow the soil to dry out between waterings. This is particularly important as the drying-out cycle encourages them to flower more profusely and keeps pathogens at bay.
- Remove any old flowers with the calyx, regularly. This will encourage the plant to produce more flowers and also give you a longer blooming period.
- Keep an eye out for snails when the plants are still small.
- If the plant is scraggly, nip out growing tips to encourage branching.
- For more planting tips on any garden gems, or identification of pest and diseases, please contact the Horticulturists on duty at Tulip Garden Centre Hanlie Wessels or Hans Serfontein.
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