Top tips for successful plant growing

By Mark Lane

To ensure colourful blooms all year, it is essential to give your plants the right conditions to grow.

There are some of the most fundamental things our plants need.

First, think about the natural growing conditions of each plant.

Woodland plants, like ferns, like moisture-retentive, humus-rich, free-draining soil in shady areas of the garden. Mediterranean plants will prefer sunny conditions in very free-draining soil.

The late plantswoman Beth Chatto coined the phrase ‘right plant, right place’. This still holds true today.

With climate change, we are having to rethink the choice of plants in our gardens. With wetter winters and hotter summers, we may need to adapt our planting schemes.

Know your soil

Knowing the acidity or alkalinity of your soil will also determine what plants will grow.

This might seem confusing, but a simple soil-testing kit costing a couple of pounds from a garden centre. Knowing your soil pH can help you pick the right plants for your garden and produce more, larger and longer-flowering blooms.

When you place a plant in the soil, in time the roots grow and start to search for sugars, nutrients and carbohydrates in the soil to feed it.

Most composts only have feed that lasts on average for six weeks. In order to get large, colourful flowers you will need to supplement with a liquid or slow-release fertilizer.

The same goes for garden soil. If you mulch the soil every year with well-rotted homemade compost or manure, you may have enough added nutrients. Otherwise, you will still need to feed your plants.

I always use the analogy of feeding and watering children. Children need food and water daily, and so do your plants.

Did you know, plants can grow soil roots and water roots?

The roots have different qualities. Soil roots are thick, needing to reach deeper than water roots to access enough nutrients. Water roots are thin, small and fragile. They need less energy and time to grow compared to soil roots.

This can make a fun test. Try initially growing a plant in water in a clear vase. You will quite quickly see thin roots forming. They will soon need to go into soil to thicken up.

Healthy roots are so essential for plant health. Roots anchor the plant, absorb water and dissolve minerals and transfer these to the stem and store reserve foods. Knowing this is essential for terrific blooms.

Finally, to stop plants setting seed during the growing months, you need to deadhead your blooms. Do this when the flowers have faded or are dead to keep your plants looking great and to prolong flowering.

Some flowers develop attractive seedheads, but a lot do not. For winter interest it is good practice to leave faded blooms. They become a source of food for birds, places to rest and hibernate for small insects and pollinators and look stunning covered with frost and snow.

* Mark Lane is a Thrive Ambassador, BBC gardening presenter, writer and garden designer.