Annual Flowers - Select Location

A well planned site could yield beautiful results.

Make sure that your choices are adapted to the light conditions in your home grounds or patio, deck, or balcony.

Success with annual flowers, or bedding plants, begins with the proper selection of the planting site and the annuals that you choose to grow. Few annual flowers grow well in heavily shaded areas. Exceptions are Coleus, Begonias, and Impatiens or Sultana, as you might know them. Make sure that your choices are adapted to the light conditions in your home grounds or patio, deck, or balcony.

Preparing the soil…

The soil in flower beds must be carefully and thoroughly prepared if you are to be successful. Lightly scratched or shallowly dug flower beds will probably grow a few plants. However, the plants will be spindly and weak with sparse flowers. Such a planting will not reward you for your efforts. On the other hand if you prepare your planting beds as carefully as you do for shrubs or bulbs, your results will be more outstanding. In order to grow good desirable plants, it is usually necessary that the soil be thoroughly spaded, plowed or rototilled to a considerable depth—no less than 6" and preferably to a depth of 8" 10". At the same time if your soil is extremely heavy, such as a red clay, it will be necessary to go further. Add 1" - 2" of coarse sand and 3" - 4" of organic matter such as peat moss, manure, leaf humus, or pine bark. Work these materials uniformly into the soil.

Check drainage…

If your selected location is low to the point that surface water does not readily drain away, it would be wise to raise the bed higher than the surrounding ground. The addition of a small amount of fertilizer to the planting bed will be helpful. For 100 square feet of bed, use one to two pounds of a general purpose fertilizer such as 8-8 8 or 10-10-10. Mix it thoroughly into the soil. If manure is used as organic matter, omit the fertilizer at planting.

For more information on selecting a location for annual flowers, contact your local county Extension office.