Prepping Flower Baskets

By Jos Van Hage

This time of year is a busy time at the garden center because there are plants and products arriving daily.There are a number of new things as well as the all the good old standbys.

For those gardeners who like to make up their own hanging baskets and containers there is now a large assortment of the ‘Proven Winners’ and ‘Tried and True’ basket stuffers. These include many of the supertunias which do extremely well in hanging baskets either on their own or mixed with other basket stuffers such as Verbena, Bacopa, Bidens, Lobelia, Nemesia, Diascia, Superbells, etc. and then you can add geraniums, ivy geraniums, and fuchsias. If you are making your own baskets and containers they must be kept indoors or in a greenhouse because it is still freezing at night, so if you do not have the right conditions it is better to wait for a little while yet. 

A plant that can handle some frost and has become one of my favorites is pansies. They come in a many different colors, have a sweet scent and are beautiful in containers that can be placed outdoors now if you like. Later if you want to use the container for another arrangement the pansies can be planted into the flower bed.

Herbs have arrived and are very popular. They can be planted into containers either individually or a combination of herbs in one pot, but they should be kept indoors for the next few weeks, and then placed outdoors in mid/end of May. Most herbs grow well in containers but if you plan on keeping the herbs in a pot make sure that the pot is large enough for the herbs. Read the labels to see how large they get but some of the more common herbs that grow well in pots are parsley, cilantro, marjoram, basil, oregano, dill (smaller variety), sage, thyme, and rosemary. 

There is already color in some flower beds as the spring flowering bulbs are coming up and are beginning to bloom. I’ve noticed the early bloomers such as snowdrops; crocus, scilla, chionodoxa, and muscari are already blooming or are done. To ensure healthy bulb growth for next year it is good to remove the finished flowers before it sets into seed and fertilize the spring bulbs when the foliage is up with a bulb fertilizer 4-14-8 If you want to transplant bulbs or separate them because the flowers are beginning to get smaller due to the bulbs being crowded you should wait until the foliage has completely died back. This way the bulb has had a chance to produce next years flower inside the bulb.

-Jos

Jos Van Hage  owns and operates two Art Knapp Garden Centres  in Prince Georg:

• Highway 16 West at Kimball Road
• Highway 97 North at Northwood Pulpmill Road

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