How to care for flowers in summer heat? Five tips to help you handle it easily

In summer, because of the high temperatures, the water in flower plants evaporates quickly, so many people water heavily, but one careless moment can cause too much water to accumulate in the pot, which instead makes the flowers rot at the roots and die. Today, let's learn how to cope with this high-temperature season from the aspects of watering, shading, ventilation, pruning and pests and diseases.

Watering: As temperatures keep rising, potted ornamental plants' demand for water will gradually increase. Besides paying attention to combining root watering with leaf spraying, you must also value the quality of the water used for irrigation and spraying. It is best not to use tap water directly, especially not tap water that has been treated with bleaching powder. For this, you can first pour the tap water into a pool or small vat, then add an appropriate amount of acidifying substance to increase the acidity of the water, such as ferrous sulfate, with the concentration kept between 0.1% and 0.2%. Small-diameter flower pots should be watered morning and evening; a flower pot with a diameter of 20 cm should be watered once a day or every other day, and each time the water should soak through. But after rain, the pots should be tipped promptly to prevent water accumulating in the potting soil.

Shade from strong light: For flowers that fear both high temperatures and strong light, such as fuchsia, cyclamen, and orchids, during the high-temperature summer period, proper shading or placing them under a shade frame for care can provide the necessary cool environment for their normal growth and development as they pass the summer, avoid the heat, and guard against high temperatures. If you do not have the conditions to build a shade shed or have no shade frame, you can also move them indoors during the day for shade and cooling, and move them outdoors at night to catch dew and get ventilation. Some that also fear rain should be placed under the eaves, such as Christmas cactus, epiphyllum, clivia, asparagus fern, and begonia. For summer-dormant bulb flowers such as Persian buttercup, tulips, and freesia, they should be placed in a cool place, and the soil should be prevented from becoming too wet and causing root rot.

Good ventilation: The respiration and photosynthesis of flowers both require an ample supply of fresh air, and ventilation can also reduce the concentration of harmful and toxic gases. Poor ventilation will obstruct respiration, affect the normal growth of flowers, and even cause them to gradually die. Strengthening site ventilation, appropriately reducing the planting density of open-ground flower beds, and rational shaping and pruning can all achieve good ventilation results.

Pruning: In summer, flowers grow too vigorously, and leggy branches should be cut back or pruned in time, with buds removed. Cut away branches that are too dense or that overlap in the same direction. Among these, for plants such as Chinese rose, gardenia, pomegranate, and winter jasmine, while for herbaceous flowers attention should be paid to removing buds and pinching tips, such as chrysanthemum, dahlia, scarlet sage, and white daylily. Some also need flower and fruit thinning, such as camellia, four-season tangerine, and pomegranate. For the heading back of white orchid not long after being moved out of the house, special attention should be paid because its branch pith is loose, and the cut surface easily loses water, dries up, and extends downward. For this reason, you should consider making the cut 8 to 10 cm above the bud eye you intend to keep, and never cut too close to the bud eye. For potted Chinese rose pruning after flowering, it should be lowered appropriately by 10 to 20 cm, and only the bud eyes located in the middle of the branch can then develop flower buds.

Pests and diseases: From July to August, scale insects lay eggs and hatch. In summer drought, red spider mites are rampant and should be wiped out promptly. Larvae such as bagworm moths, slug moths, leaf-roller moths, and inchworms should be wiped out promptly. For Chinese rose, rose, and rugosa rose, attention should be paid to preventing and controlling powdery mildew and brown spot, and for any leaf-eating pests that appear, pesticides should be sprayed promptly to kill them. For the leaf-eating pest that often appears on bitter orange, kumquat, golden bean, fingered citron, lemon, and rue, the citrus swallowtail butterfly larva, pesticide should be sprayed early to kill it.

Besides the five points above, everyone should also pay attention in the process of caring for flowers to not applying too much fertilizer. Too much fertilizer will cause "root burn," so fertilization should refer to the growth condition of the flowers.