How to Grow Flowers

Are you ready to get gardening but don't know the difference between an annual and a perennial? Need some help growing your garden? We've got answers for you. Check out our top DIY flower projects, as well as our discussion boards and video tutorials. We've got you covered on everything from tulips to roses and everything in between.

DIY Flower Tower

How to Grow a Flower Garden

Step 1: Choose the right spot: Some flowers require sun while others prefer shade. If you want to grow a particular variety choose a spot that offers the correct conditions.
Step 2: Prepare your garden beds: Mix compost into the soil. Most plants like well-drained soil. If your soil clumps together when it’s damp, add a small handful of river sand.
Step 3: Plant your flowers: Ensure the roots are well covered with soil. Most plants require water weekly - check planting instructions as there are varying requirements.
Step 4: Feed your flowers: Most flowers have a growth period and a dormancy period. Depending on the plants, add some organic fertilizer in spring or in autumn.
Step 5: Harvest your flowers: Use a sharp knife or scissors to pick flowers. Most plants will bloom more profusely if their flowers are harvested before they pollinate.

More growing categories

Top Projects for Growing Flowers

Check out our top DIY flower growing projects for helpful guidance and ideas.

DIY Flower Tower

We made these self watering flower towers for the Moms in our family for Mother's Day. It incorporated two ideas we had seen online. The Flower Tower and a watering feature. The towers were a hit with the moms/wives. Now that it has been about a month since we made them, they have really filled out and look great.

Dan330

Slinky Garden Hack and Trellis for Climbing Vine

I’m sharing a garden hack and my favorite flowering summer vine with a creative way to help it climb, using a Slinky!

Mary @ Home is Where the Boat Is

Triangle Flower Bed

Triangle flower bed made from reclaimed cinderblocks and mulch I've been working with on. Cost will depend on what cinderblocks or bricks used for the front, how big the flower bed is, and how much soil/dirt has to be purchased. I'm putting the actual cost I've put put of pocket but it could be more or less.

Denise Regnier

Fall Cleanup of Hosta

Too busy to clean up your flower beds? In this post I share the reasons why I make sure to clean up my Hosta in the Fall and how to do it. I hope you find this post helpful!

Rhonda B

How to Grow Sweet Peas From Seed

Have you dreamed of having a garden full of good old-fashioned sweet peas? I’ll share my tips on sowing sweet pea seeds indoors, how to transplant them into the garden, and much more. You can see more gardening tips here.

Shiplap and Shells

Holes In Hosta Leaves-It Might Not Be Who You Think!

So, you walk by your prized Hosta one afternoon on a stroll and it looks like this:

Rhonda B

Another Example of a Beautiful Shade Garden

I think I struck a cord with my last post highlighting a small suburban shade garden. Obviously gardeners are hungry for planting suggestions for shade. In this post, I am featuring plantings from the shady sections of a large private garden in rural Ontario called Garden Canadensis. The blog post has detailed planting notes with links to even more information: http://threedogsinagarden.blogspot.ca/2014/03/garden-canadensis-part-2-planting.html You can check out the rest of the garden in this blog post:http://threedogsinagarden.blogspot.ca/2014/03/garden-canadensis-this-is-one-garden.html

Three Dogs in a Garden

How to Start Geranium Cuttings

I used to spend hundreds of dollars each year to fill my garden containers with geraniums. But now I plant new starts from the cuttings of existing geraniums plants. Not only are geraniums easy to maintain and grow, but they are also easy to propagate. Here are some tips to start new geranium plants from cuttings. You can see more gardening tips here.

Shiplap and Shells

These Breathtaking Pictures of Clematis Are All You Need to See Today

Ok, on a scale of 1-10, how much do you wish this pretty little front porch was yours?

Hometalk Recommends

DIY Flower Tower

Dan330

Slinky Garden Hack and Trellis for Climbing Vine

I’m sharing a garden hack and my favorite flowering summer vine with a creative way to help it climb, using a Slinky!

Mary @ Home is Where the Boat Is

Triangle Flower Bed

Denise Regnier

Fall Cleanup of Hosta

Too busy to clean up your flower beds? In this post I share the reasons why I make sure to clean up my Hosta in the Fall and how to do it. I hope you find this post helpful!

Rhonda B

How to Grow Sweet Peas From Seed

Shiplap and Shells

Holes In Hosta Leaves-It Might Not Be Who You Think!

So, you walk by your prized Hosta one afternoon on a stroll and it looks like this:

Rhonda B

Another Example of a Beautiful Shade Garden

Three Dogs in a Garden

How to Start Geranium Cuttings

Shiplap and Shells

These Breathtaking Pictures of Clematis Are All You Need to See Today

Ok, on a scale of 1-10, how much do you wish this pretty little front porch was yours?

Hometalk Recommends

Peruse the slideshows of DIY flower projects. Get growing!

DIY Flower Growing Videos

Want to start growing flowers but need some help? Watch our DIY video tutorials.

How to Naturally Dye Baby's Breath #DIY

Floral arranging is a personal love affair of mine. For me, it is utterly relaxing and soothing to my soul. Home decor stores and floral shops can be outrageously expensive! I am always looking for new ways to decorate or enhance the ambiance of my humble abode. One day, I was staring at a vase full of store bought roses that were surrounded by baby's breath. I thought to myself, "baby's breath would sure look amazing in a different color." Light bulb moment here. Alas, I set out to naturally dye bucket loads of this textural wonder.

Heather Paulding

Stair Riser Planter Garden

I've always dreamed of a super simple, easily accessible and manageable herb garden. I've tried different methods of keeping them in the past, but they always end up growing into one another, being displayed poorly, or being infested with bugs. This option is appealing, eye-catching, and extremely functional. Now, I can quickly snip, pull or pick the herb I need for my next meal, right outside my back door!

Julien K., Hometalk Team

How To Prune Leggy, Overgrown Geraniums

Geraniums (these are actually pelargoniums) grow like crazy & need cutting back for good form & abundant bloom. Here's how to prune leggy, overgrown geraniums . This is great to do at the end of the season.

Joy Us garden

How to Prune Woody Salvias In Summer

Perennial salvias grow like crazy throughout the season. They need to be cut back or deadheaded at least once. Pruning salvias in summer is beneficial for overall form & to stimulate flowering. Here's how I pruned 2 overgrown woody salvias which should have been cut back the previous season.

Joy Us garden

Hometalkers' Favorite DIY Flower Growing Projects

Best flower growing projects on the web. Prepare to fall in love with these gardens.

Forgot to Plant Those Spring Bulbs? It's Not Too Late!

But you better not delay! If you have a bunch of bulbs that you never got around to planting in the ground, you can still try a forcing method. Here's how...

Sow and Dipity

A Garden in the Shade

Colorful and shade are not to adjectives many people would think belong in the same sentence, but today I want to show you a front and back garden where the homeowner has managed to combine these two very words. To read more and see additional images: Part 1: http://threedogsinagarden.blogspot.ca/2013/03/a-garden-in-shade-part-1.html Part 2: http://threedogsinagarden.blogspot.ca/2013/03/a-garden-in-shade-part-2.html

Three Dogs in a Garden

Sunny-flower Pineapple Wreath

Here is an alternative to a circular wreath using sunflowers purchased at the Dollar Store that can be used from late summer into the fall.

Alicia W

Making daylilies bloom again

Several varieties of daylily (Stella d'Oro, Blackeyed Stella, Happy Returns, etc) are known as reblooming daylilies. Their first bloom period is just about over here in GA. To encourage further blooming, immediately remove the seed pods, if present, and fertilize with liquid plant food. This will encourage the growth of new leaves, new tubers and new flower stems!

Walter Reeves

Harvesting Borage Seeds

Why pay every year for a new plant (and create the plastic waste that comes with it) when you can harvest seeds from this year's plants and grow your own from seed next year!

Plastic What You Preach

From Unused Space to THIS!

For 17 years we looked at this and finally decided to make the space something we could enjoy.

Shirley Drake Gilbert

Forgot to Plant Those Spring Bulbs? It's Not Too Late!

But you better not delay! If you have a bunch of bulbs that you never got around to planting in the ground, you can still try a forcing method. Here's how...

Sow and Dipity

A Garden in the Shade

Three Dogs in a Garden

Sunny-flower Pineapple Wreath

Here is an alternative to a circular wreath using sunflowers purchased at the Dollar Store that can be used from late summer into the fall.

Alicia W

Making daylilies bloom again

Walter Reeves

Harvesting Borage Seeds

Why pay every year for a new plant (and create the plastic waste that comes with it) when you can harvest seeds from this year's plants and grow your own from seed next year!

Plastic What You Preach

From Unused Space to THIS!

For 17 years we looked at this and finally decided to make the space something we could enjoy.

Shirley Drake Gilbert

Popular Flower Growing Discussions

Here are the popular DIY discussion boards on growing flowers and gardening.

Can I use tar paper instead of garden fabric on my flower beds?

/> Mar6780907

I have a lot of ?Gout Weed throughout my gardens and I want to smother them out? Becayse I have so many gardens it would be too expensive to cover them all with garden wrap!

View discussion

How soon does a flower replenish its pollen?

/> Jody Bruss

We watch butterflies and hummingbirds drink from our flowers and we are wondering will it replenish or run out?

How soon does a flower replenish its pollen?

View discussion

Sweet potato vine: leaves start turning brown and dying!

/> Rita Yost

Every time my plant looks like it's doing great, the leaves start turning brown and dying. Does this plant require special care as a houseplant?

View discussion

New DIY Flower Growing Projects

New flower growing projects are here to spark your creativity and start your garden!

How to Grow Beautiful Marigolds for a Splash of Color

Beautifully bright marigolds are low-maintenance annuals that deserve a place in every garden. They sprout quickly, reliably bloom within two months, last all summer and into fall, and have very little disease and insect issues.For these reasons, marigolds make for a colorful and satisfying addition to the yard that both gardening newbies and aficionados can appreciate.Plus, even though they’re technically annual flowers, it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll come back and bloom year after year without you having to lift a finger.Dig into this breezy how-to guide to growing the cheerful flowers yourself.

Alexa

How to Grow Hyacinths Both Outdoors and Inside

By Alexa EricksonSweet-smelling hyacinths fill the garden in dreamy pastel hues mid spring. The perennial bulb is easy to grow, whether you choose to start the by forcing hyacinth bulbs indoors or get straight to planting outdoors.Here’s everything you need to know about how to grow and care for hyacinths, from when in the season they should be planted to a step-by-step guide on the planting process.

How-To Guides

GROWING SWEET PEAS FROM SEED | MUST KNOW TIPS!

How to grow sweet peas from seed? Start 4-6 week before last day of frost, scarify the hard surface of the seed, soak seed for 24 hours, plant seed indoors on a root trainer at correct depth depending on size of seed and use good quality soil since they do not like repotting. Soil must reach around 68 degrees to germinate. Seeds need warmth, good soil, moisture and drainage to succeed.You want to see more gardening posts? Check out Cocoon Raw!

COCOON RAW

How to Grow Zinnias For Your Cut Flower Garden From Seed Indoors

Have you dreamed of growing a garden full of beautiful zinnias in your cut flower garden? I’ll share my tips on growing zinnias from seed indoors, how to transplant them into the garden, and much more.To see more of my tips on growing cut flower gardens, click HERE.

Shiplap and Shells

How to Plant Amaryllis Bulbs in Pots

By Hannah TwietmeyerFresh blooms aren’t just for spring, though a flower garden full of pastels is a great way to ring in the season. Bouquets can be enjoyed year-round, with or without an occasion. You’re probably used to seeing bundles of poinsettias around the holiday season, but that’s not the only flower you can gift in the winter.Amaryllises, vibrant in color and tropical in nature, are most often sold during colder months. They’re fairly easy to grow in pots, too, great for those of us who might not have the greenest of thumbs. Here’s everything you need to know about planting and growing amaryllises at home.

Hannah Twietmeyer

How to Care for Poinsettias and Encourage Them to Bloom

Poinsettias are a beautiful addition to your home decor any time of the year, but they often bring a much-needed burst of color during those late fall and early winter months when the days get colder and shorter.Typically sold between Thanksgiving and Christmas, poinsettias are actually the highest-selling potted plant in the United States. Although they’re often associated with the holidays, poinsettias can actually thrive all year long during each and every season.With the proper guidance, you can continue to care for poinsettias after Christmas—even long after the celebrations have ended. To show you how to properly maintain your poinsettia plant and keep it blooming throughout the year, we will walk you through the most important steps you need to care for a poinsettia plant.What Are Poinsettias?Perhaps the most interesting fact about poinsettias, or Euphorbia pulcherrima as they’re known in scientific circles, is that this much-loved plant is esteemed for its leaves rather than its flowers.In fact, the colorful blooms we often associate with the poinsettia plant—most commonly red, white, and pink—are actually modified leaves called bracts. These brightly-colored bracts are meant to attract insects to the tiny yellow flowers in the middle of the poinsettia plant (called the cyathia).The bracts will naturally drop off after pollination or any time the plant becomes overly stressed. This stress can happen anytime the poinsettia plant is exposed to extreme temperature shifts or a lack of water.How to Buy Healthy PoinsettiasThere are several things you can do to make sure that you’re buying healthy poinsettias. These pointers are especially important if you’d like your poinsettias to live through the holiday season and beyond:Look carefully at the poinsettia plant you’re considering for purchase. Check to see if it has shed any pollen. Avoid plants that already have a dusting of pollen on the bracts.Make sure the poinsettia plant has plenty of deep green leaves.Consider the conditions it’s currently living in at the store. Poinsettias are tropical plants so they thrive under high levels of humidity and sunlight. If it’s not living in these conditions where you find the plant, it’s probably not off to a very good start.Basically, you want to make sure that the poinsettia plant is currently healthy, and that it will stay healthy long after you transport it home. There’s nothing worse than buying a beautiful plant at the store only to have it start dying on you just days after you bring it home.Here are five telltale signs a poinsettia plant may not be healthy and that you should avoid it:It has ripped leaves or bracts.The flowers are broken apart instead of being tightly clustered buds.It has brown or white spots on the leaves, bracts, or roots.Its leaves are yellowing or sagging.Its soil is overly wet or far too dry.Lastly, you want to make sure that the poinsettia plant is not infested with bugs before you bring it home. The most common pests that target poinsettia plants are whiteflies, fungus gnats, thrips, shore flies, and spider mites.By simply looking closely, you can tell whether or not these pests have made a home on your poinsettia plant, whether it’s by yellowing or wilted leaves or by merely spotting the insects.Are Poinsettias Poisonous?Contrary to popular belief, poinsettias are not, in fact, poisonous. However, they do have toxic properties that make eating them or overly touching them a bad idea for both humans and pets. Poinsettia exposure can cause cases of discomfort when touched or ingested, including: Stomach aches, vomiting, and diarrheaEye irritationSkin irritation like redness, swelling, and itchinessFortunately, there are no documented cases of death occurring after poinsettia ingestion. Just the same, it’s best to appreciate your poinsettia plants from afar and refrain from eating them or touching them without gloves.Of course, picking the plant up by its pot is perfectly fine. Also, be sure to keep your poinsettia plant out of reach from pets and children.