Question
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Followup To
Question -
Do i add a fertilzer to my lantanas to keep blooming? Ive plant mine in the ground and starting to bloom a little.
Answer -
A little fertilizer in spring is ok, but heavy fertilizing and over watering will reduce amount of flowers. Prune the shrubs in early spring to remove dead wood.

It is important to water sufficiently to keep the soil evenly wet, but avoid saturated/water logged soils. make sure you have a 2-4" layer of mulch to preserve water. Generally it is better to water once per week and then thoroughly soak the soils with a soaker hose rather than hand water a little every day. During very hot months, you may need to run the soaker hoses twice per week.

One single application of an all purpose garden fertilizer in early spring is all that is needed.

Prune hard in spring to remove dead wood. During the growing season you can tip prune the shrub to remove the spent flowers. this will incurrage new flushes of blooms. TO KEN, WHAT FERTILZER DO YOU USE FOR BLOOMS? DEB.


Answer
A good flowering shrub fertilizer is one with more nitrogen than phosphorus/potassium, but not as much as lawn fertilizer.

A fertilizer will have 3 numbers such as 10-2-6. This means that the bag contain 10% nitrogen, 2% phosphorus oxide and 6% potash. These are also referred to as the N-P-K numbers (always expressed as Nitrogen-Phosphorous Oxide-Potash). All fertilizers will have these 3 numbers shown.

A good choices would be 12-6-6, 12-4-8, etc
I would say that phosphorus/potassium should be pretty close and nitrogen slightly higher, but even balanced fertilizers like 14-14-14 and 10-10-10 are acceptable.

What I would look for is products where the nitrogen is coated for slow release.

In comparison, annual plant flower fertilizers may be 15-30-15, tomato fertilizer 5-10-10, and lawn fertilizers 29-3-4 or 33-3-3. You want a fertilizer with balanced phosphorus/potassium (approximately) and then slightly more nitrogen if available. Don't buy lawn fertilizers.