5 spring gardening tips from Merrifield Garden Center

Plant for spring interest

The garden center is filled with interesting colors, textures, and shapes right now with spring interest plants. If you’re looking to add spring interest to your landscape, check out these trees and shrubs.

Azaleas
Kousa dogwoods
Japanese snowbell
Fringe tree
Oakleaf hydrangeas
Rhododendrons
Roses
Spirea
Sweetbay magnolia
Weigela
Viburnum

Visit Merrifield Garden Center today to see these beautiful plants.

Add instant color with annuals

Annual plants provide us with continual color and blooms all season long. Plant things like begonias, geraniums, lantana, marigolds and petunias to bring instant color and flowers to your garden beds, borders and container gardens. Add tropical foliage to brighten up your yard by planting coleus, caladium and sweet potato vine. These interesting foliage and blooming plants will continue to bring the color and interest all season long. Keep them looking their best by removing spent foliage or blooms — a process called deadheading — so the plant continues to direct its energy to producing new growth.

Move your houseplants outside for the summer

If you’re growing tropicals inside the house, move them outside after Mother’s Day to enjoy them outdoors for the summer. It is best to gradually introduce them to direct sunlight to prevent the leaves from being burned. When you first move them outside, place them near the house to protect them from the hottest part of the afternoon sun and from severe wind.

Feed your houseplants with good quality indoor plant food, such as Jack’s Classic. If needed, re-pot root bound houseplants to a larger pot. It’s best to use containers that are one to two inches larger than the current pot and have a hole in the bottom to allow excess water to escape.

Prune your azaleas

The best time to prune azaleas is right after the flowers have faded. Thin out vigorous, overgrown branches to stimulate new growth from the interior of the plants. You can also rejuvenate old, leggy azaleas with more aggressive pruning. Fertilize with Merrifield Flowering Plant Food or Holly-tone to support healthy growth and flowering for next year.

Feed your plants

Fertilize annuals and perennials in both container gardens and landscape beds with Merrifield Flowering Plant Food to keep them growing and blooming. Fertilize non blooming evergreen and deciduous plants with Merrifield Tree & Shrub food.

Take a trip to Merrifield Garden Center and get your garden ready for enjoyment this spring!