The most inspiring container displays are grown by gardeners who have developed a real feel for their plants and can tell at a glance when they are in need of water, food, a bigger pot or just a good tidy up. If you play doctor with them, your plant will reward you with luxuriant growth. Professional growers achieve this by keeping their plants growing steadily throughout the seasons, so they never suffer from a check in growth by being starved or dried out. It's not rocket science but having a few pieces of essential maintenance equipment to hand is one of the keys to success.
A well balanced, long necked watering can turns watering from a chore to a pleasure. A fine rose on the end of the spout is ideal for soaking seedlings and plug plants without washing them away.
Give container grown plants a liquid feed every seven to ten days. If this seems too much of a commitment use push in feed pellets that deliver nutrients every time you water during the growing season. Water retaining granules can also be mixed into the potting compost before planting up. They are especially useful for hanging baskets or window boxes on south facing sills where they can make the difference between watering once rather than twice a day during hot, windy weather.
Just as having a dog to walk gets you up in the morning, so will having a mobile garden to tend to. Get into a watering routine and you will make light work of it. Water in the morning or evening to reduce evaporation and try to avoid splashing the leaves as this will cause them to scorch when exposed to strong sunlight. At holiday time, move your containers to a shady wall and stand them on special moisture retentive capillary matting fed from a tin bath of water.
In the Autumn, winter and spring months, plants need much less water, although it is surprising how a series of hard frosts can strip the moisture from the compost and this can only be replenished when the compost has thawed out. When the weather's particularly severe, it pays to gather your containers under a warm house wall where they will escape the worst of the weather.
Deadhead your plants regularly as soon as flowers fade. This will encourage a fresh flush of flower buds. Spent flowers left on the plant will usually inhibit further flower production, however, not all spent flowers need to be removed. Busy Lizzies and those super vigorous petunias carry on regardless. Some like marigolds can be snapped off. Others like pansies and nasturtiums can be nipped off by pinching them with your fingernails.
For bushy fuschias and chrysanthemums with lots of blooms, pinch back shoots regularly. Do this by simply nipping off the tips of the shoots. At the end of summer be ruthless and throw annuals past their best onto the compost heap. However, some plants sold for bedding can be propagated from cuttings in late summer or dug up and over-wintered in a frost free greenhouse or porch. They have the potential to get bigger and better every year.
