How to Plant Clematis in Your Home Flower Garden

The flowers of a clematis are visually stunning and the way that they climb make them a popular perennial for the home gardeners' list of must haves for their flower garden.

Here are some tips for planting clematis in your home flower garden:

• Start planting by working up about a foot by foot area.
  
• Clematis like their roots to be kept cool. When you plant clematis, find 3 or 4 flat rocks about the size of a soft ball only flatter. Place them around the base of your plant. Your clematis will love you for this!
  
• Clematis don't like soggy soil, adding pearlite, hydroton or lecca to soil can increase the oxygen holding capacity of your dirt.
• Keep the area in your flower bed around your clematis free of weeds that will rob the nutrients from your soil that your clematis needs.
• Once a week or so, when the color of your clematis leaves and blossoms looks less than bright, add a tablespoon of epsom salts to a gallon of water and use it to fertilize your clematis. You can do this in addition to your normal fertilizer regimen.
  

Home Garden Flowers: How to Dead-Head

So you have planted your home garden and it is beautiful and full of flowers! Then you notice that the blossoms are beginning to die off and your petunias don't seem to have as much color. It is time to learn how to dead-head. Don't panic, you are not going to kill anything. You will be doing something that will make your plants blossom more and your friends and neighbors notice how beautiful and colorful the flowers in your garden are, and they will ask you how they can do the same thing at their home.

Some Examples of Types of Flowers that Need Dead Heading:

• Petunias
• Wave Petunias
• Osteospermum
• Geraniums
• Gerber Daisys

Reasons to Dead Head Your Home Garden Flowers:

• Increases the number of blossoms on you flowers
• Increases the length of time your flowers will bloom for
• Eliminating dead or decomposing plant matter will help protect your flowers from bacteria and viruses
  
• Keeps your home garden flowers happy!

Deadheading your home garden flowers means removing the dying blossom and the part of the stem that it is connected to. This will prevent the plant from going to seed and encourage it to keep blooming. For long stemmed flowers like Geraniums, Gerber Daisys and Osteospermum, this means breaking them off or cutting them with shears as close to the main stem or base as possible. For flowers such as petunias and wave petunias this means cutting the part of the stem that is connected to the blossom about a quarter inch from the main stem that it is growing off of.

God Bless and Happy Growing!

Best Home Garden Flowers for Beginners

The best home garden flowers are available at Lapham's Garden Center in Mt. Pleasant, MI!
How can you choose what flowers are going to thrive in your garden?
A good place to start is to consider how much time you are willing to commit to your flower garden. Hanging baskets and mixed flower pots are a great way for beginners to start a garden at home. Hydroponics take a little more preparation, but you can forget about having to water your flowers daily.

• Consider available locations for your flowers. The north facing side of buildings and under awnings or on decks, porches, or balconies with roofs require plants that like or can tolerate shade. Patios, driveways, sidewalks, or decks without roofs are great for plants that like sun light.
• The best flowers for beginners are ones that require little or no maintenance. Look for varieties that do not need lots of pruning or dead heading. Flowers such as Proven Winners are bred specifically to need little or no deadheading. They will continue to blossom and not go to seed, even if you do not pluck off the dead flower blossoms.
• Perennial flowers require a little more work, but you can save money by not having to replace them every year. You just need to remove the dead plant matter and possibly do some pruning at the end of the growing season.
• Do not be afraid of killing your plants! Gardening is a form of art that takes time and practice to master. If you are going to have a flower garden you are going to loose some plants from time to time. This is OK!
• Start small and pay attention to your plants! They are living things that need tender loving care. As your gardening strengths grow so will your flower gardens!

When choosing the best plants for you flower garden, look for flowers that are the most visually appealing to you. Than select the flowers that will do the best in your home garden. If you are unsure about a particular variety, just ask your local garden center or flower shop. The growers there will be a valuable resource and are always willing to offer advice.

Home Garden Flowers: Best Sun and Shade Annual Plants

When making plans for planting a flower garden or potting flowers, there are a few factors to keep in mind as you select the flowers that you will be planting. Of course you will want to consider the color and over all visual appeal, but here are some factors that will help you to plant a flower garden that will add appeal and beauty to your home all summer long.

Flowers have light requirements that are unique to each type of plant. For plants that require full sun, a south facing side of your home is best. For plants that require full shade, a spot under a tree on the north facing side of your home is best. For plants that need part sun and part shade, an east or west facing side of your home is best.

Annual flowers that grow well in the shade:

• Torenia
• Fuscia
• Impatiens
• Ferns

Annual flowers that grow well in the full sun:

• Flowering Vinca
  
• Osteospermum
• Thumbersia (Black eyed Susan vine)
• Geraniums
• Petunias and Wave Petunias
• Argaranthemum
  

When choosing annual plants to plant into your flower garden, be sure to get what you like. Unless you absolutely need ground cover or you are trying to sell your house, there is no reason to buy and plant something that you don't like just because it will grow well. Try to buy plants that are already showing the color of their blossoms, so that you will not get a surprise when your red geranium opens up and it is pink instead!