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How To Keep Your Flower Beds Healthy and Beautiful 

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Landscape Flower Growers, Inc.
P.O. Box 7 Wimauma, Florida 33598
(813) 672-4121

 

Ten Steps To Saving Money on Labor
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How to Keep your Flower Beds
Healthy and Beautiful

 

1. Get As Close as Feasible to the Ideal Dates with your Change-Outs.

2. Choose Seasonally Appropriate, Trouble-Free Plants From the Monthly List.

3. Clean Beds Out and Quickly Get the Refuse Carried Off.

4. Add Soil-Medium: Sunshine #4 Mix.

5. Sprinkle Nutricote Time-Release Fertilizer, don’t mix it in.

6. Plant, Not Too Close Nor Too Deep.

7. Drench Correctly, Evenly, Deeply, and Thoroughly with Hose, Wand and Breaker Directly onto Top of Root Balls; Check During First Week and hand water any Dry SPOTS.

8. Water on Very-Wet-To-Very-Dry Cycle.

9. Spray Every 2 Weeks, More or Less, Depending on the humidity.

10. See that the old pots and trays somehow get back to us. And try to tell us way early what seasonal plants you will want for the next change-out so we can grow them in time.

 

When to Change-out The Flowers:

        In the West Central parts of Florida the ideal approximate Change-out dates are:

           September 25

           December 7

           February 15

           June 5

By scheduling the change-out of your plants to as close to these dates as is feasible you will obtain the longest possible show time for each change-out. You will get your moneys worth from each approximately equal-length exhibition period.

Bedding plants have two modes of growth: vegetative (about 75% of the year) and flowering (about 25% of the year).

 You should show only the "Prime Flowering Time" of each selected genus, in sequence, all year round. There are four change-outs a year. At about three month intervals.

      It is natural conditions that control horticulture change-outs…not the fiscal quarter.

  • What to Plant and Which Season:

By scheduling your Change-Out dates as suggested above you will naturally coincide with the Flowering Prime Times of many Low-maintenance, Labor-Saving, bedding plants:

Annuals and Perennials Availability by Month. "X" means we sell it that month.

Special Notes: fp means the entire  plant (and open  flowers)  is not hurt by freezes. fp2 means only the open flowers (not the plant or  buds) are hurt by freezes. sm means the plant is suited for Summer heat.

 

 

 

 

WINTER

 

SPRING

 

SUMMER

 

 

FALL

Plant Name

DEC

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEPT

OCT

NOV

Alyssum

X

X

X

              X

X

Angelonia sm

          X

X

X

X

X

X  

Begonia

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Begonia, Dragonwing

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Caladiums sm

       

X

X

X

X

X

X

   

Celosia

     

X

X

X

           

Coleus, sm from cuttings

       

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

 

Crotons sm

     

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

   

Crossandra sm

           

X

X

X

X

 

 

Dahlsberg Daisy

     

X

X

X

           

Dusty Miller fp

X

X

X

X

X

         

 

X

Gaura sm

         

X

X

X

X

X

   

Geraniums

X

X

X

X

           

 

X

Helenium sm

           

X

X

X

X

   

Heliconias sm

           

X

X

X

X

 

 

Hibiscus sm

     

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

 

Impatiens

X

X

X

X

X

     

X

X

X

X

Lantana sm

      X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

 

Lobelia

X

X

X

             

X

X

Marigold

X    

X

X

X

     

X

X

X

Melampodium sm

           

X

X

X

X

 

 

OrnamentalPeppers sm

           

X

X

X

X

X

 

Pansy fp

X

X

X

             

 

X

Pentas sm

         

X

X

X

X

X

   

Petunias fp2

X

X

X

             

X

X

Portulaca sm

         

X

X

X

X

X

   

Purslane, sm Vegetative 

           

X

X

X

X

   

Salvia

X

X

X

X

X

X

     

X

X

X

Salva Rhea Blue fp2

X

X

X

X

X

X

       

X

X

Snapdragons fp2

X

X

X

             

X

X

Torenia 

         

X

X

X

X

     

Violas fp

X

X

X

X

           

X

X

Zinnia

     

X

X

         

X

X

 

The Change-Out:

Dispose of all the old plants, weeds, mulch etc. Carry this refuse off site quickly. Changing out partial sections or replacing just certain plants will quickly spread any diseases to the new replacement plants. Mulching flowerbeds is forbidden because of the need for air and direct sunlight to kill fungus and dry the bed (except around the perimeter).

  • Pathogens:

If any disease has been in the flowerbed it’s best to remove and discard the old soil-medium to a depth of at least six inches. Even in an apparently healthy flowerbed do this at least once yearly at the start of autumn. You save money on labor and chemicals by tossing out all the old soil-medium. If you are not removing all the old soil-medium then do add about four to six inches of new soil-medium right over the old and DON’T MIX IT IN. Just fertilize (see below) then plant into this new disease-free layer. 

  • Soil-Medium:

If you use a really quality soil-medium then you can have much adversity and still look good. Long fiber, blonde Canadian peat moss and Perlite are the two most costly ingredients possible in any potting mix. The best is Sunshine #4 Potting Mix, we use it.

Otherwise seek long fiber peat moss with a wetting agent and Perlite for aeration. All peat moss breaks down into muck sooner or later. Later is better. The lighter color peat lasts longer. Fiber length is the key: longer fiber gets to break more times than shorter before becoming muck. Canadian is better than Florida Peat. Cold Hardened Fibers break less. All peat must have a wetting agent or it won't absorb water. 
Aeration, which is absolutely needed, stops root rot, is a cost dilemma: Perlite has no side effects. It doesn't decompose. Doesn't float. Holds air real well. It's perfect...but it is costly. So substitutes are often tried. None work well. All either have bad side effects, break down too soon or just don't hold air. Avoid all tree barks and sawdust whether "composted" or not. Especially avoid not-composted barks and sawdust because as they decompose they will use up the nutrients in the Bed. Avoid manure and compost because of possible diseases in it (law suit). Compost is risky. There are not yet good government standards and inspections. Contact with even a very small amount of improperly composted material (not properly Pasteurized) can cause fatal disease especially during pregnancy. Although much compost is safe, the small amount of money saved by using it is not worth the legal risk to the professional. Avoid mulch. Avoid chunks of anything. No sand, it's only for weight to hold containers upright in the wind. Avoid Styrofoam because it floats in heavy rains then blows all over and can get slimy in the cracks of the sidewalks and can cause slip-and-falls (law suit). 

 

Fertilizer:

The best is Nutricote 10-10-17 time release 100 Day.  Heat doesn't make Nutricote over-release like the all the other brands. Sprinkle it over the new soil-medium so that the pellets fall about ONE INCH APART. More is not better. DON’T MIX IT IN.

  • Spacing:

Closer is not better. Give them room to grow and to breathe. Especially breathe...moving air and sunlight are the death of fungus! Don’t plant so close that they are touching or you will grow tall, leggy, ugly plants with expensive-to-cure fungus problems. 

  • Depth:

Never cover the surface of the rootball even slightly or else you’ll get stem rot or crown rot. You should still be able to still see the entire old top surface of the root balls when you are done. Brush off any soil or what-ever so the plant maintains its same depth in the ground...very critical. Never plant deep (except Marigolds).

  • Drenching as the First Watering-In:

Immediately after planting Drench-water each plant individually! You must apply fungicide. Count the drenching as the first deep watering. Drench means to FLOOD the fungicide solution down onto the root balls so it goes deep into the center of the roots. From your big tank or proportional injector use a hose with a wand and water breaker (showerhead) to submerge the roots getting the fungicidal liquid all over the leaves too. Shake the wand to settle the soil around the root ball and eliminate air pockets. Pause often. Water heavily, slowly and thoroughly. Get the bubbles out. Submerge the roots. Later during this first week, only lightly spot-water any dry plants with wand and breaker. Running the irrigation is forbidden until after the Drench dries out in the second week. DO NOT LET ANY PARTS OF THE FLOWERBED WILT.

           Recipe number one:
          2 Ounces of Medallion
          and 1 Ounce of Subdue Maxx
          in each 100 Gallons of water

          Recipe number two:
          8 Ounces of BanRot
          and 1 Ounce of Subdue Maxx
          in each 100 Gallons of water

            Use either formula not both at once.

  • Routine Watering:

Don’t try to keep the flowerbed "Moist" all the time…this grows pathogens. Feel the soil-medium with your hands. Get into a cycle where you let the flowerbed dry out good before watering. Water really heavily then wait and let it ALMOST WILT. This very-wet-to-very-dry cycle kills pathogens and encourages deeper roots and flowering. Mornings or before dawn are good times to water.

  • Spray:

Disease is always worst during high temperature and humidity periods…Summer Monsoon into Fall. Spray your flowerbeds routinely every 14 days and more frequently if it rains daily. Spray each plant to the point of drip. Never spray dry, stressed plants. Mornings are the best time. Keep an eye out for the occasional insect damage and spray insecticide only when needed (which is seldom).

Here are two recipes for Routine Spray:

    Recipe number one:
     16 Ounces of Chipco 26019
     and 16 Ounces of Dipel 2X (for worms)
     in each 100 Gallons of water

    Recipe number two:
      24 Ounces of Spectro 90 WDG
     and 11 Ounces of Orthene
     in each 100 Gallons of water

          Use either formula not both at once.

 

If you follow this method you will save significant money on labor by having to send crews back to fix things way less often. Plus the beds will be stunning and you will get lots of compliments.