How To Keep Potted Plants Blooming

How do you keep Potted Plants and Hanging Basket Blooming all summer long?

I heard by mixing Bleach together with water, is this true?

I also heard by mixing Vinegar together with water is this true?

Just how do you keep your Potted Plants and Hanging Baskets blooming all Summer long?

bleach and vinegar are used as weedkillers. the key is light but regular feedings and deadheading. it also depends on the plant. some just don't bloom all summer.

Maybe the person who told you about the bleach and vinegar was thinking of cut flowers rather than plants in pots. You can use a few drops (just a few!) of bleach in a vase of water for cut flowers to help preserve them, and a few drops of vinegar might have a similar effect.

No what she was saying is since our water is very hard by doing this it helps keep the bloomers coming on and they alway look nice and full.

I do agree that by using these it will kill the plants and flowers, this is why I am asking you how you keep your plants and flowers looking very nice all Summer long.

I think the advice you got in your other thread about watering/fertilizing/deadheading is good--beyond those three things it's really up to nature, some plants will tend to bloom all summer long if you do those things, but others bloom in cycles with breaks in between and some won't rebloom no matter what you do.

I'm not sure that posting the identical question at two forums is the best thing to do. Some answers go to one, and others to the other. It can even be confusing for members who want to reply to the query.

The way to keep your pots/baskets really healthy and flowering is lots of care and attention to there needs, good quality growing compost, feed every week when you do one of your daily watering's, try to water when the sun is not too hot and shining on the foliage/flowers, make sure the soil is absolutely saturated as there is such little soil in the pots and baskets they dry out fast, all these roots are fighting for the water, some mornings I have had to resort to plunging the baskets or pots into a bucket of water to really soak the soil as this when too dry, is very hard to soak up water, it just runs off the top of the soil, any good indoor plant food watered in at the directions state will do for the feeding, deadhead every day is not unusual and dont just nip off the flowers, run your finger down the stem till you come to a new bud/shoot, if you live in an area where the plants are in constant hot sun, your flowering plants will want to make seed heads faster than if in a little shade, remember some summer bedding plants need more shade than others, Geraniums like full sun but Fuchsias like a bit more shade to flower well, but all summer bedding plant need constant dead heading to last all summer, the idea is to prevent them making seeds, so removing the dead flowers stops this happening and the plants make more flowers as you have tricked them into thinking the need to make more flowers and seeds to survive, hope this helps you understand a bit more about this type of gardening, OH by the way, I would never use bleach or chemicals on such tender flowers as it will burn both the roots and the foliage , good luck. WeeNel.