- Selection of site: The location of your flowerbed should be of the front view of your garden & not hidden somewhere in the background. Choose the sunniest spot in your garden as seasonal flowers do best in full sun. Flower beds look good when placed beside or in-between lawn.
2. Soil: In general, flowering annuals thrive best in deep, well-drained & well-cultivated soil which is not acidic in nature. The beds should be worked up thoroughly to a depth of 30 cm before plantation when soil is not wet.
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3. Annuals & flowering season: In India, the flowering annual plants are classified according to the season when they are grown. Viz. Winter annuals, summer annuals, & rainy season annuals. Choose your flowerbed plants accordingly.
4. Transplantation: Seeds of flowering annuals are sown in seedling trays or seeds beds. Plants should be transplanted to the main flower beds only when they are about to flower. Please ensure that flower beds always have blooming plants growing on them.
5. Watering: Daily light watering is needed only about a week after transplanting. After that, the correct method is to flood the bed followed by weeding & hoeing in coming days; the soil is then allowed to dry before the subsequent flooding.
Also know about Perfect time to water the plants
6. Fertilizers: Chemical (NPK) or organic (Cow dung manure) fertilizers should be provided in liquid form. During flowering stage, nitrogen fertilizers should be avoided. Fertilizer mixture should not come in direct contact with flowers & foliage.
7. Plant maintenance: The plants with weak, slender or struggling stem will need staking support when they are 15-20 cm tall. Apical growing points of many plants need pinching (removal) for uniform bushy growth. Early flower buds & the number of buds per stem are reduced by disbudding the lateral buds if large flowers are desired.
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8. Design: Draw the layout of your flowerbeds. Give your beds artistic shapes, in geometric or naturalistic forms according to available space & your aesthetic sense.
9. Mass Effect: Flowerbeds are at best of their looks when flowering plants are grown in groups & clusters in very proximity. Often a mass effect of a particular flowering plant is drastically different from its solitary specimen.
10. Color schemes: Annuals are also classified based on the color of their blooms. In Monochromatic scheme different tones of the same color are arranged in bed; in an Analogous scheme, closely related or harmonious colors from the same spectrum are used;
Read about Winter Annual Flowers in India
in complementary scheme, two opposite or contrasting colors are used together in same bed.
Know about Annuals to grow from Seeds
A basic guideline has been provided above for arrangement of different annual flowers in flowerbeds & one can improve upon this with experience gained.
Happy Gardening!
