Sponsored by: Merrifield Garden Center. We got container gardening tips from Caitlin Akkerhuis, Plant Specialist and Designer at Merrifield Garden Center.
if your mom has a green thumb maybe some plants or flowers will do the trick as this segment is sponsored by Maryfield Garden Center I recently visited one of Maryfield Garden Cent’s three locations and definitely got some inspiration for the perfect container garden for Mom or for myself kayln absolutely gorgeous here um I’ve heard about container gardening what is that so container gardening is when you basically take a garden and put it into a small container or a pot or vessel of your choice it’s a small ecosystem so you want to pick out plants that are going to grow really well together and you always want to have a thrill a fill and a spill a thrill a fill and a spill okay what are those so lots of layering so you want to have a taller plant that’s going to kind of draw the eye especially like the Hibiscus here that’s going to be a major Thriller especially as all those buds open up and then the fill is going to be the components that are in the middle layer so right here there’s an abutilon and there’s also some really sweet zenas and there’s potato vine which as the season progresses it’s going to dump out of the pot and draw the eye y absolutely most of these plants are going to go really well together because they’re tropical so they’re from tropical climates like South America they’ll thrive in the heat in Virginia during our summer months and they’re going to really enjoy the humidity that we all have in Virginia as well as they’re going to love some moist and well cared for soil so most Tropicals are going to do well together there are some that thrive more in Sun so the Hibiscus planter with the salvas and zenas and calber coas that’s going to want at least 6 hours of Sun throughout the day where the smaller planter here this has some bellal it’s got cadium even a poos and a ponia this is going to be for a part sun or just Morning Sun location so if you’ve got a shadier area this is going to be a great choice for that um and at Maryfield we’ve got tons of folks here that can help you and assist you to find the perfect plant for the right location based on your lighting okay and so now is a good time to really plant these container gardens absolutely get them started now especially at the heart of spring we want to be able to enjoy them throughout the whole summer months and they’re going to keep blooming these flowers up until first Frost okay and then when it starts to get cold we can bring them inside how does that work so you absolutely can bring in your Tropicals most of them will do really well especially if you’ve got good lighting if you do not have good lighting then what you’ll want to do is purchase a light and keep them away from drafts so we’re kind of simulating what they would have in the natural environment lots of light a little bit of humidity and you just get them through those months and once spring returns you can put them outside so if you have any Tropicals now now is the time that you can put them on your patio and enjoy them is there something special we need to know when we’re bringing them from inside out so they’re not Shock that is an awesome question yes absolutely so when bringing them outside for the first time the bright light can be a little bit intense so we kind of want to give them a few hours of Sun during the morning and then pull them back to a more shaded spot during the afternoon okay and then after a while they’ll slowly be acclimated so where you can keep them outside throughout the whole summer so for these tropical plants that are indirect Sun what is the watering schedule like what do we need to know so the watering schedule is going to change with the season this time in Spring you’ll check them every few days and then as it gets warmer and the plants are really starting to fill in the container that’s when you want to check every day okay and then if it’s like leaning over or saying I’m thirsty that’s like they’re not dead like if you put water in they’ll come back to life right absolutely so anytime I see a leaf doing this I go over I check it right away cuz sometimes if we get too happy with the hose the plants will do a similar thing so if you see a wil okay that’s it basically drawing attention asking for assistance if it’s dry that’s when you’re going to give it water and most of these plants have a really good rebounds so it’s nice that they will communicate with us when they’re thirsty yes we like that um anything else when it comes to just having a successful container garden that we need to think of yeah so with the Tropicals you don’t have to dead head them but a little bit of Dead Heading is going to help encourage more buds so dead headings when you remove a spent flower um so for instance if this this flower right here was finished blooming I would just remove it and encourage more blooms if for instance you’re not someone that’s out there all the time wanting to do this Tropicals will continue to bloom regardless but if you really want them to bloom you can do some deadheading also fertilizer since you got a lot of plant in a container it’s nice to apply fertilizer granules you can apply them every six weeks and then I use a liquid fertilizer just because I can take care of everyone giving them a little drink with something special but again you have the experts here that can help us even just put together what to put together to make it look beautiful absolutely that’s the best part of the job we get to basically live vicariously through everybody’s pots how do you choose there’s so many beautiful flowers I encourage our guests to pick one plant that they absolutely love okay and then from there we’ll kind of make suggestions and say oh these would really do well with the plant that you love it’s also important to have a container that you love because yeah season to season even if the plants change that pot is going to be with you so you want to come in with a container or pick out a container you love tell us what plant you love and we’ll build around it for you we can also do the planting for you I love all that Kaya thank you so much great information yeah absolutely appreciate it thank [Music] you so much Beauty there if you still need to grab your mom Mother’s Day gift then go ahead and visit Maryfield Garden Center in one of their three locations in Maryfield Fair Oaks or Gainesville you can also find them online at Maryfield Gardens center.com and on social media at Maryfield gardencenter you get some inspiration