Sunday, May 10, 2020

May Fertilizing

The saying goes “April showers bring May flowers”, this isn’t just because it rhymes and sounds good.  May is the flower month.  If your roses aren’t blooming they’re setting their buds for the first show of the season.  Now is an excellent time to head to your local independent nursery and pick out the perfect roses for your garden.  The tags just don’t do these beautiful plants justice.  Just about all your garden is in bloom in May, so make sure you have fertilizer ready.  Plants often need fertilizer shortly after blooming to replace the energy they expend on their showy display.  You will notice that flower blooms have a pattern of large showy displays followed by less dramatic displays.  This is often repeated though-out the course of the plant flowering habit.  For instance if your blooming plant is a Dogwood or Rhododendron which typically bloom once a year your plant will have heavy blooming years followed by a muted year.  In the case of roses which bloom several times through-out a season this pattern will play-out during spring, summer, and into fall.