Why haven't flowers thrived?

space2ground1

Hi all, can anyone help me out here? I planted these about 3 weeks ago after getting them in the local garden centre. The flower bed had tulips in it up to about 5 weeks ago and when I cleaned the bed, I put about 20-30ltrs of moss peat into it and mixed it all up. I'd have thought they'd do well. The tulips had done very well so its disppointing to see them dying off! Is there anything I can do to get them back in shape?

redser7

What's the deal with the raised bed? Is it on concrete? If on top of soil is the soil broken up?
They look like they need a good water. It's also very important to dead head the spent blooms regularly. They are going to seed and once that happens it will either die or stop producing flowers. Right now they are putting their energy into those seed heads.
Peat moss isn't very nutritious, you should have made a hole at least twice the size of the root ball and filled it with compost. Then planted into that. It's a good idea to mix some general fertiliser into the hole too.
After that keep up watering in the abscence of decent rain and give them a liquid tomato feed each week.
So give them a water and a good feed. Remove any spent blooms and dying foliage and keep it up.

redser7

And weed those seedlings, they will steal water and nutrients. If you mulch with grass clippings it will help keep in moisture, keep weeds down and rot into the soil helping to condition it.

space2ground1

Thats great. Thanks a lot. The raised bed has a concrete wall behind it and nothing underneath.

I'll follow those tips and see how we get on!

redser7

They'll be grand. They might look a bit bare when you remove those old flower stems, but get some cheap tomato feed and start feeding it, they'll recover in a couple of weeks and last till the frosts. Senetti are a nice plant.

space2ground1

redser7 wrote: »

They'll be grand. They might look a bit bare when you remove those old flower stems, but get some cheap tomato feed and start feeding it, they'll recover in a couple of weeks and last till the frosts. Senetti are a nice plant.

Already done! Thanks again!

looksee

Once peat moss gets dry it is extremely difficult to wet it again, the water just runs off round the sides. You may need to water it slightly, numerous times until the peat moss absorbs the water. Then as redser says, mulch it and feed it, there is no nourishment in peat moss.

inocybe

Also those Senetti are from a hot climate, they're probably sulking at the cold

peadar76

They look to me like they are just about finished flowering. I read somewhere that if you cut back by 50% and fertilize that they'll flower a second thime

space2ground1

I'm going to go on the lookout for some osteospermum to have them ready to rock in case these don't improve.