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?

Your question implies that all flowering plants have the same genetic programming for blooming and the same cultural needs. A general answer is that some plants tend to bloom more or less continuously, while others bloom either at a certain time of year or they cycle in and out with a rest period between blooming periods. It depends pretty much on what the plant is. Of course, if they are being grown under conditions they prefer, they will bloom better for you. Some are gross feeders; others only bloom well when they are "hungry." Some need to be kept in moist potting mix; others like it drier. Light conditions range all the way from total shade to full sun. I think you're getting my drift. One thing I can tell you for sure is that adding bleach or vinegar to their water is baloney. In general, it's best to fertilize with a balanced plant food (where there are equal amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) such as 12-12-12 and, since you're talking container plants, to use half the recommended strength about every third watering. That could be every other day or every three weeks, depending on the weather and the plants themselves. I wish there were a magic formula for making everything bloom all summer long. But then, that would take some of the challenge out of gardening, wouldn't it? I don't know how much experience you have growing container plants, but the more you do it, the more you'll learn about the different plants and what is best for each one. Best of luck to you!

I think maybe you're mixing up what to do with cut flowers with what to do with hanging baskets. Putting a few drops of bleach in with cut flowers to help preserve them and it's possible vinegar might have a similar effect. But in a potted plant they're not going to do anything good for you.

I think dp72 covered most of the things you need to know, the only other thing to add is that many flowers will continue blooming over a longer period if you deadhead them (remove the spent flowers before they have a chance to set seed). Many plants, especially annuals, know that they need to set seed in order to come back again the following year, so when you cut the flowers off before they have a chance to go to seed then they bloom again to give themselves another chance at forming seeds. This won't work with all plants though, but for many of the things that are commonly used in hanging baskets it ought to work.

No what she was saying is since we have hard water this will help keep the plants and flowers looking great all summer long. I disagree with what she is telling me, for this will kill the plants which are annuals in pots and hanging baskets.

I do believe in fertilizing them every 3 or 4 waterings for the water runs out the bottom and you lose allot of nourishment that the plants need when they are in pots or hanging baskets.

So I thought that I would ask just how do you take care of your potted and hanging baskets with annuals to keep them looking very nice and with Lott's of blooms on them all Summer long?

Bleach won't do anything at all for hard water, vinegar will reduce the pH of your water and since hard water can often also have a high pH that could help neutralize the pH. But you need to be really careful that you're just adding enough vinegar to bring the pH down to neutral, otherwise too much vinegar can act as an herbicide so in my opinion unless you've got really high pH water and you're growing acid loving plants, trying to do this is probably a lot of trouble for not much benefit. Watering and fertilizing properly and deadheading will probably have a bigger impact on keeping things blooming, but as dp72 already mentioned there are some plants that just aren't cut out to bloom constantly so there's only so much you can do. If you're already fertilizing regularly and watering things properly and deadheading the spent blooms, there's really not a lot more that you can do.

Some of us could recommend plants that bloom "non-stop" in our areas, but I wouldn't presume to do that
because our latitudes and climates are so different. Maybe someone who lives near you could do that. There ARE plants that will do that to some extent, but they are more the exception than the rule. Have you considered coleus and caladiums, which are grown for their foliage and not their flowers? They can add wonderful color to a landscape if your growing conditions are right for them. In general, they prefer some shade. Ohio sun may seem brutal at times, but it's not compared to Arizona or Mississippi, so these two types of plants would do better in more sun in Ohio than further south.

Enough bright light, regular feeding (every week with half strength miracle grow or other 10-10-10 food. Pinching back the plants when young encourages a bushier growth also which produces more blooms. Deadheading the flowers when they start to wilt helps as well.

Hybrid plants are often sterile, so deadheading doesn't really affect whether they keep blooming or not, but they look more tidy after they are deadheaded. I'm not sure about any connection between wilting and deadheading.

You have some other answers on another thread where you asked the same question, so have a look at those too. WeeNel.