Four steps to growing flowers, and growing flowers will never be difficult again

Always envious when you see "other people's gardens"? How can you keep those flowers and plants alive and thriving? Here I've summed up some experience to share with everyone. A beginner flower-growing enthusiast must master the 4 most basic bits of knowledge for growing flowers: soil, watering, fertilizer and light. Add your love and patience, and a garden full of spring color won't be far away!

The four-part suite of growing flowers

Soil

Soil is the most basic thing for growing flowers well. Most flowers and plants like acidic or slightly acidic soil rich in organic matter. The simplest approach is to buy ready-made potting mix, but you can also mix your own soil.

For ordinary potted flowers, you can use 1 part leaf mold, 1 part garden soil, half a part barnyard manure soil, and half a part rice husk ash, or 1 part garden soil and 2 parts leaf mold to make a light fertile soil. Plants like asparagus fern, cineraria, poinsettia and wax begonia can all use it.

You can also use ordinary mountain soil. It is a natural humus soil, loose and acidic, and is suitable for planting camellias, azaleas, Aglaia odorata, gardenias, jasmine and so on.

Soil mix for foliage plants: 2 parts leaf mold, 2 parts fertile soil, 1 part sand or stone, plus about 5% of the total weight in rotted barnyard manure.

Soil mix for epiphytic cacti and succulents: 3 parts leaf mold, 3 parts coarse sand, 1 part plant ash. Soil mix for shade-tolerant, acid-loving flowers: 4 parts leaf mold, 2 parts garden soil, 1 part stone, 1 part river sand.

Watering

Watering is a very important part of growing flowers. You need to grasp the principle of "don't water if it's not dry, and water thoroughly when you do".

Watering potted flowers should be handled according to the type of plant, its growth stage, the size of the pot, and the season and climate.

For moisture-loving plants such as cineraria and primroses, you can water more, while for drought-loving plants such as five-needle pine, sago palm and succulents and cacti, water less. In addition, plants should be watered a bit more during the leaf-growing and flowering period, and can be watered less when fruiting. In winter, during the dormant period, water less or control watering. When it warms up in spring, the amount of watering should gradually increase. In summer, when temperatures are high, the potting soil dries out easily and water demand is great, and by autumn the amount of watering can gradually decrease.

For potted flowers, rainwater is generally best for watering. If you use tap water, it is best to store it in a small vat for 2 to 3 days and water only after the chlorine in the water has evaporated.

Fertilizing

Fertilizers for growing flowers at home include: organic fertilizers, generally made from scraps such as soybeans, peanuts and rapeseed, rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and commonly used for potted flowers; rotted soybean cakes and rapeseed cakes are sold at flower and bird markets. Inorganic fertilizers, generally available on the market, such as urea, superphosphate and monopotassium phosphate. Plant ash, an alkaline fertilizer, containing more nutrients such as iron, calcium and magnesium.

Under normal conditions, when symptoms appear such as pale leaf color, stunted plants, pale flower color, small flowers and spots in the leaf veins, it means the plant is already lacking nutrients and should be given supplements and fertilized in time. The key to fertilizing is light fertilizer applied frequently, and by no means thick and concentrated; generally apply once about every 15 days.

Potted flowers are best fertilized during the growth period or one month after flowering, when they sprout in spring, at the second sprouting in autumn, before flowering and one month after repotting. The times when no fertilizing is needed are the flowering period and the dormant periods in summer and winter.

Many flower-growing enthusiasts like to fertilize newly bought potted flowers. This is not appropriate. Generally, newly bought flowers already have good soil or have already been fertilized, enough to sustain them for 2 months. For the potted flowers to grow vigorously, it is not too late to fertilize after 2 months.

Light

Flowers are usually divided into two categories: sun-loving and shade-loving.

Those that grow well when cultivated in sunlight, such as Chinese roses, pomegranates, chrysanthemums, narcissus, purslane, oxalis and lotus, are sun-loving flowers. If these flowers do not get enough light intensity, they often show slender branches, elongated internodes, thinner leaves and off-color foliage, and are also more vulnerable to pests and diseases.

Shade-loving flowers mostly dislike direct strong light, especially in hot seasons, when they need varying degrees of shading, and care should be taken to appropriately increase air humidity. Shade-loving flowers include wax begonia, maidenhair fern, Impatiens, asparagus fern, fuchsia, orchids, clivia, azaleas, Monstera deliciosa, lucky bamboo and so on.

For ordinary potted flowers, during the flowering period, strong light can be appropriately reduced in order to prolong the flowering time, as with Chinese roses and chrysanthemums. But some flowers can only bloom well under strong light, such as water lilies and purslane. There are also some flowers that dislike strong light in summer, yet cannot bloom in winter without light, such as geraniums, wax begonias, hydrangeas and fuchsias.

Overall, you need to know whether the flowers you grow are shade-loving or light-loving, and then place them according to the light conditions in your home. But note that shade-tolerant flowers also need to be moved to a bright place to get some sun after a period of time; long-term shade is not good!

As long as you master these 4 steps

growing flowers is no longer difficult!