Commercial Lawn Care Guide To Fall Flowers

Commercial lawn care services available from Landworks include floral landscape displays. We can plant both autumn-blooming annuals and spring-blooming bulbs to keep your landscaping looking great all year. Here we will share some information and tips about planting flowers in the fall.

Commercial Lawn Care Annual And Perennial Favorites

An annual sprouts, flowers, seeds, and dies all in the same year. Flowers that live for three or more growing seasons are called perennials. Perennials can be planted from bulbs or seeds. Bulbs often need to be planted in the fall to produce spring-blooming plants. Perennials are more low-maintenance flowers and will save money on watering because most are drought resistant.

Frost-resistant annuals like chrysanthemum, viola, aster, and petunia provide color all through fall. The best time to plant spring-flowering bulbs like hyacinth, daffodil, tulip, and crocus is October through mid-November. These plants must develop roots in the fall and need a dormant period over the winter in order to bloom in the spring.

Where And How To Plant

Use flower beds that get the most light in late fall and early winter for your frost-resistant annuals. Try not to plant in windy areas, because it will dry out the flowers and they will die sooner.

Choose a site with full sun to partial shade to plant spring bulbs. Small bulbs are usually spaced 1 to 2 inches apart, and large bulbs 4 to 6 inches. Commercial lawn care services plant in irregular masses or clumps to produce a better display than planting individually. If you intend to keep them as perennials but want color in late summer and fall, leave some room between them to interplant with annuals.

Planting depth is important for the flowers to return each year. Follow the directions on the package, but as a general rule, a bulb is typically planted two to three times its diameter deep. After placing the bulbs at the proper depth, replace half the soil and water to settle the soil around them. Then replace the remaining soil and water again.

There will be no top growth in the fall, but the roots are developing so the soil needs to be kept moist but not soggy. After the soil has frozen, you can add mulch to prevent small bulbs from being pushed out of the soil by alternate freezing and thawing.

Flower Maintenance

Flowers should be fertilized regularly during the season for the best blooms.

If rainfall is insufficient, provide 1/2 inch to 1 inch of water per week. New flowers don’t need long periods of watering because the roots are only on the surface.

To keep flowers blooming, remove spent blooms. This is called deadheading. Or you can leave the withered blooms on the plant to harvest seeds for replanting next year.

For more information about commercial lawn care or other services from Landworks, click here or call (913) 422-9300.