This summer weather or should I say the autumnal weather has been playing havoc with my hanging baskets.
They are being drenched, yet not getting enough water. They are being blown about all over the place, then add in the rather chilly temperatures and grey sky.
The plants are really unhappy, as you can see after another night of hard rainfall the petunias are looking really rather sad. The photos below show the damage the weather has caused.
They almost seem to be dying back and nothing is spreading as it did last year.
This has made me a little sad, but enough of that, what can I do to help them out.
One problem has been a lack of water, I thought due to the fact it had been raining hard they would not need watering, I was wrong. I gave them a good water and added some liquid feed. I will check them every day come rain or shine to see if they need water. I will also feed once a week. I did not feed the hanging baskets at all last year but these guys need a helping hand.
Deadheading, I deadhead them regularly but I really need to give them some time and attention. Especially after the hard rain fall, the flowers really suffer and need to be carefully dead-headed especially the flowers that have been damaged in the rain.
I am hoping these simple steps will help them recover and maybe we can get some warm sunny weather and they can begin to flourish again.
It is not all bad news though, the Nemesia Ice Pink is doing really well.
The Osteopermum and the Argyanthemum with regular deadheading are abundant with flowers, a lesson learnt from last year.
They are being drenched, yet not getting enough water. They are being blown about all over the place, then add in the rather chilly temperatures and grey sky.
The plants are really unhappy, as you can see after another night of hard rainfall the petunias are looking really rather sad. The photos below show the damage the weather has caused.
They almost seem to be dying back and nothing is spreading as it did last year.
This has made me a little sad, but enough of that, what can I do to help them out.
One problem has been a lack of water, I thought due to the fact it had been raining hard they would not need watering, I was wrong. I gave them a good water and added some liquid feed. I will check them every day come rain or shine to see if they need water. I will also feed once a week. I did not feed the hanging baskets at all last year but these guys need a helping hand.
Deadheading, I deadhead them regularly but I really need to give them some time and attention. Especially after the hard rain fall, the flowers really suffer and need to be carefully dead-headed especially the flowers that have been damaged in the rain.
I am hoping these simple steps will help them recover and maybe we can get some warm sunny weather and they can begin to flourish again.
It is not all bad news though, the Nemesia Ice Pink is doing really well.
The Osteopermum and the Argyanthemum with regular deadheading are abundant with flowers, a lesson learnt from last year.
Seeing these three plants do well has helped my confidence, as I was starting to question if it was the weather or my skills as a gardener.
I've tried a different approach to hanging basket to try and deal with exactly the problem you've identified. This year I stuck to upright geraniums which need little water or feed, just deadheading, and trailing Bacopa and Helicrysums. The effect is much simpler than the traditional hanging basket exploding with plants everywhere, but I like it, and it is a lot lower maintenance, and the plants only suffer from lack of water during a really extended dry spell. At other times they don't need anywhere like the watering a conventional basket would.
ReplyDeleteI'm so bad at keeping plants alive - I really don't know where I go wrong, but on reading this, I have some ideas why my hanging baskets died! I really hope you manage to rescue them! They looked so beautiful last year :) Let us know how you get on, and thank you for linking to #Blogstravaganza
ReplyDeleteHonestly, they look beautiful! It's just this rubbish weather we can't seem to shake off! Thanks so much for sharing with #Blogstravaganza xx
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