Management methods and care tips for courtyard potted flowers

After the beginning of autumn, summer-dormant flowers that resume growth, including semi-dormant types such as calla lily, cyclamen, clivia, portulacaria, daphne, geranium, and fuchsia, need increased watering.

For wintersweet, plum blossom, camellia, and others that bloom in winter and early spring, watering should be controlled and misting increased to help their flower buds swell. In northern regions, for flower types that are relatively sensitive to cold, watering should be reduced to accelerate the lignification of new shoots, helping them survive the winter safely. The best time to water is 10 a.m. or 3 p.m.

For camellia, plum blossom, wintersweet, cineraria, primrose, clivia, cyclamen, cymbidium, Belgian azalea, pheasant's eye narcissus, and others that bloom in winter or early spring, continue applying a mixture of 0.2% monopotassium phosphate and 0.1% urea; for most foliage plants, after mid-October.

Stop applying nitrogen fertilizer and appropriately apply some low-concentration potassium fertilizer to increase the cold resistance of the plants; for fruit-ornamental potted plants such as bitter orange, lemon, kumquat, nandina, winter coral, Ardisia crenata, and golden bullet, a small amount of phosphorus-potassium fertilizer can be applied in early to mid-October.

Pruning: For most bonsai and potted flowers that must be moved indoors in winter, in mid-to-late October, dead branches and fallen leaves, diseased and pest-infested branches, and weak thin branches should be cut off first; for leggy branches, severe cutback pruning should be carried out; for ties that have been shaping the plant for 1 to 2 years, they can be removed, or removed and then re-tied, to prevent long-term binding at fixed positions from damaging the cambium of the branches and causing the branches and leaves to die.