Summer flowers and bedding plants are the best way to instantly add color to your lawn. Summer flowers start appearing in garden centers during the early spring, but you should be careful to plant only after the danger of freezing weather has passed. Summer flowers produce the best results when purchased ready to plant rather than attempting to grow them yourself from seeds. Choosing the right summer flowers for your area can be quite a task, especially if you are planting your first flower garden. Here’s a few suggestions as to which flowering plants may be right for your situation:
If your flowerbed is in direct sunlight for the most of the day, you will want to choose a hardy, heat-resistant plant. Some of the greater choices for full sun are marigolds, zinnias, and petunias. Be careful to choose a variety of heat-resistant plants, as many of these full-sun varieties are prone to diseases, especially marigolds. You will want several types of flowers in your flowerbed not just for contrast and interest, but in the event that one variety does poorly or becomes diseased, you can simply pull the plants, roots and all and cultivate your remaining varieties. Remember that if any of your plants are diseased, you should pull them immediately to avoid spreading the disease to your other plants.
For areas which are in partial to full shade, consider impatiens, begonias, and vincas. Most of these come in a variety of colors and grow quite well in shady areas. In choosing the colors for your flowering plants, keep in mind that red colors make the plant seem closer and larger, while blue will give the illusion of smallness and distance. Planting a single color of flowers will draw much more attention to your flowerbed, but if you want several colors make sure the flowers compliment one another. Purple goes well with pink and white will blend in nicely with some other color. And also, red goes very well with violet as odd as this may seem.
The most important thing you can do to guarantee beautiful summer flowers is to prepare your flowerbed appropriately before planting. Till the soil completely and remove any weeds, roots and all. Fertilize your flowerbed before the planting and for the first month after planting flowers, water every other day so that the roots of the plants will be properly nourished. Use mulch as a covering in your flowerbed to maintain moisture and do not over-feed your flowers. Use fertilizer exactly as instructed on the package and avoid getting the fertilizer directly on the parts of the plant that are above the ground.