How To Keep Marigolds Flowering – 3 Secrets To More Blooms: Want your marigolds to bloom big and all summer? Marigolds are one of the most beautiful, useful, and resilient annuals. In flowerbeds, they look great in mass plantings or grouped to lend color to perennials, shrubs, and bushes.
How To Keep Marigolds Flowering – 3 Secrets To More Blooms
Marigolds are versatile in other ways. They thrive in containers and baskets. Potted marigolds brighten porches, patios, and decks with their variety of bloom types, sizes, and colors. Additionally, they are even more useful in vegetable gardens!
How To Keep Marigolds Flowering
Marigolds attract honeybees and butterflies with their vivid blossoms. However, marigolds may be most effective in the vegetable garden for repelling insects.
The pungent aroma of marigold foliage and blossoms deters many garden plant enemies. Hornworms, aphids, nematodes, whiteflies, and best of all, mosquitoes! To maximize marigold beauty and protection, let them blossom!
Success in maintaining marigolds healthy, vigorous, and blooming big comes down to three key elements:
Watering plants properly
Plants Need Nutrients to Bloom
To Allow New Blooms, Deadhead Plants Regularly
If all three demands are supplied consistently, large blossoming success is almost certain. Here’s a look at each aspect and how to give your plants what they need to flower bigger than ever throughout summer!
Water Consistently – How To Keep Marigolds Flowering
Marigolds endure well. They tolerate direct sunlight and heat. They are also one of the most drought-tolerant summer flowering annuals. To blossom big and stay blooming, they need a continuous water source.
Fertilize For Success – How To Keep Marigolds Flowering
New flower sets and healthy roots and foliage require water. Hydrated marigolds absorb and distribute flowering nutrients faster.
How much water suffices? For marigolds, consistency matters. Marigolds in flowerbeds or garden soil need 1–1.5 inches of water per week. Each plant needs 1/2–3/4 gallon of water.
Container marigolds need daily watering. Watering early in the morning is ideal. This prepares the plants for the day’s heat and maximizes sunlight for blossoming.
Be careful not to overwater, even if consistent water is vital. Overwatering swells roots, preventing nutrition absorption. If the soil has good moisture down a few inches, skip watering for the day.
Pots and containers benefit from moisture meters. They let you easily insert the probe deep to check root wetness. If you struggle to know when to water, moisture meters can help! Product
How To Fertilize Marigolds
Marigolds require a lot of energy for flowers and foliage. Over summer, even the richest flowerbed, garden, or potting soil can deplete its nutrients. This is where fertilization can help.
Plants need nutrition to bloom, therefore fertilizing and watering are equally crucial. Like watering, consistency is crucial to success!
Too much nutrients at once can impair annual flower blooming cycles. Too much energy makes plants grow rather than bloom. Without enough, they’ll cease or slow blossoming!
Also See:
Classic Macaroni Salad Recipe – Learn like a pro
Deadheading Old Blooms – How To Keep Marigolds Flowering
If growing marigolds in containers or soil, give them a smaller but regular dose of fertilizers every 10–14 days.
Best to use liquid fertilizers. They nourish plant roots and foliage. This double dosage of energy can boost plant energy and speed up blooming.
Choose a water-soluble fertilizer with a higher N-P-K middle number. Blooms require phosphorus. This will assist the plant focus on flowering rather than growth.
When feeding every 10-14 days, use half-strength fertilizer. This lets you energize the plants more often to sustain energy without overpowering your marigolds.
Last but not least, deadheading old marigold blooms keeps them blooming. How to Deadhead Annuals & Perennials
While on the marigold plant, fading flowers continue to absorb nutrients. However, eliminating these wasted blossoms lets the plant focus on developing new blooms. It’s easy to deadhead marigolds!
Pinch the bloom below the stem to eliminate old blossoms. Use small scissors or pruning snips if desired. Marigold flowers usually pop off easily. Your plants will blossom more a few days after deadheading!
For optimal results and to keep plants flowering, deadhead marigolds weekly all season. Save some stem heads and let them dry out to get tons of free seeds for next year!
Keep your marigolds blooming all summer and provide color to your landscape until the conclusion of the season!
