Fertilizing flowers

I have to say that often nurserymen know what to do in their garden but ...

Well I'll just say "do what we say, not what we do."

Often that is the case with Jim and fertilizer and flowers. Getting flowers off to a good start is especially improtant because they don't have years to recover from initial mistakes.

This summer I planted Vinca at home and Donna, my wife, complained that I didn't plant them close enough. What I did wrong is not fertilizing them in the beginning. About 6 weeks after I planted them I started fertilizing and eventually they started to grow and bloom. But, by that time the weather started to cool down and they never did what they were supposed to.

This fall I planted a bunch of Iceland Poppies, mixed in soil conditioner and started fertilizing them after about a week with Master's Rose and Flower Food. This time I didn't get complaints. They exploded out of the ground. They would be in full bloom except we have a 4 year old Granddaughter living with us and she loves to pick the long stems of the Iceland Poppies.

In any case the moral of this story is do what the nurseryprofessionals say to do.

Not always what we actually do do.