'Evolution' salvia is ready to be deadheaded. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
By now, many of summer’s flowers look a bit bedraggled. On Indianapolis Fox 59 Morning News July 28, the Hoosier Gardener offers tips for giving plants a midsummer makeover.
Heat, humidity and rain have challenged the landscape this year. This environment may cause annuals to be excessively stretched over the edges of containers or sprawling in the landscape developing smaller and smaller flowers as they grow.
Perennials that have stopped blooming may have brown stems where flower used to be. Cutting off spent flowers, called deadheading, frequently encourages more blooms on perennials and annuals, and it also tidies up the plants.
With all of the rain we’ve had, plants may be starved for food, especially annuals in containers or in the ground. Give them a good dose of bloom-booster fertilizer, compost tea or other nutrients, according to label directions.
In the vegetable garden, make sure to keep harvesting the produce. Produce harvested at the right time ensures the best flavor and encourages the plant to keep producing more food.
Make sure to keep weeds out of the gardens because they rob food and flowersing plants of water and other nutrients.
