With the arrival of autumn, here come the beautiful walks in the parks, mushroom picking in the forests full of colorful trees, and streets carpeted with hundreds of crusty leaves breaking under our feet. Weather instability becomes more common, and while this can damage some plants, many others bloom in splendor with their flowers.
The changing of seasons is a very important time for plants, shrubs and trees: we must take good care of them, and prepare them for the harsh winter as well as for the sweet spring that will follow, or else we will have to completely replant our garden in the coming year.
If you want to learn a few instructions on how to maintain your garden alive at home, Floraqueen has prepared a few easy guidelines to help you, so keep reading.
Preparing for the season
In autumn, your plants, flowers and your lawn are preparing for long winter latency. It is now the time when it is the most necessary to take care of your garden so it will bloom at its full potential in the spring.
During autumn, you should plant bulbs that will bloom in the spring, so your garden looks picture perfect in the season of the flowers. Bulbous flowers will adapt best to chilly temperatures, and even though they will not bloom during winter, they will resist the cold and will blossom in the spring.
At Floraqueen, we recommend you to try a few: tulips, hyacinyhs, roses, daffodils, crocus or ranunculus.
Let us take tulips as a pretty example for your garden in the upcoming season. Tulips are perennial flowers that thrive in climates with long springs and dry summers. They bloom in the spring from bulbs planted in autumn, as we have mentioned. They usually need well-drained soils, normally 10 to 20 cm. deep. Most tulips will produce only one flower per stem, although since they come in such a wide variety of colors, they are extremely attractive and will look beautiful in your garden. They grow from 10 up until 71 cm. high.
On another note, if you have not done so already, you should also remove summer bulbs from the soil, like your dahlias, gladioli or begonias. Plant them into a pot, and move them to an interior location, otherwise they will not survive the cold temperatures outside.
Tips to preserve your garden through the autumn
At Floraqueen, we want to give you a few tips so your garden keeps looking beautiful through the autumn:
- Limit watering your plants to a minimum: this is a recovery season for plants.
- Spray the leaves every three days in order to humidify the environment and compensate for the dryness created by the heater.
- Use room temperature water.
- Cut out dry and yellow leaves, so your plants keep looking good.
- Light intensity decreases during autumn and winter, and days become shorter as well, so move your plant pots closer to the windows, so they will absorb as much light as possible.
- Keep your garden clean. Remove all old leaves from the ground to prevent insect plagues to spread during the winter.
- Bear in mind unexpected storms. They could really damage your flowers, so make sure you cover them with a thin net or plastic to prevent them from hail and strong winds. If necessary, cover your most delicate flowers with an umbrella or a tent covered in plastics or resistant cloth.
Permanent colorful garden with autumn flowers
Autumn is a perfect season for some plants, so cold weather does not mean that you must give up decorating your garden, terrace or room with the most beautiful flowers of the season. If what you want is a permanent flower garden, take away those summer flowers and substitute them for traditional Autumn flowers that will also bring color to your garden, like chrysanthemums, pansies, calendulas, coreopsis or blue spire.
If you take good care of them, these species will survive the temperature changes and frosts, and will live through all winter.
Floraqueen especially recommends you Crysanthemums, which are flowering plants native to Asia. They blossom during short autumn days, in different colors and reaching different heights up until one meter. They require common soils and little water (beware of not dampening the foliage), as well as plenty of sun.
You can also plant trees and bushes. Water them profusely, cover them with organic fertilizer, and if necessary, attach them to a little rod so they will grow straight upright. Our Flroaqueen experts advise you to water them up until the end of the season.
Healthy grass all year round
Do not worry if your grass turns yellow and looks as if it were burned or dead –it is only a recess. If your garden is not too big, Floraqueen recommends you to cover it with a thin layer so it still breathes but it is well protected from the cold.
Thanks to chilly nights, frequent rains and morning dew, autumn is a wonderful season to give grass all the nutrients it needs to recover from summer’s damage. In fact, fertilization at the beginning of autumn is one of the most important of the year. Keep fertilizing up until the last week of autumn, although it is not recommended to do so in the winter.