Planting Annuals

When you are ready for planting annuals from flats pull all but one of the plant tags from the flat. You only need one with you at time of planting, the others will get in your way.

Annual are typically sold in cell packs at the beginning of the season and in larger gallon sized containers during the summer and fall season.

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Practice Placement

Place the cell packs in the garden where you want the annuals planted. Move the packs around until you get a setup that looks pleasing to you. It is easier to move the packs around than to dig up the plant once it's in the ground.
Check the tag and make sure you have tall annuals towards the middle of the planting area and shorter ones in the front.

If you are planting annuals that climb make sure you put the poles or climbing stuctures in place before putting plants in the ground.

Dig The Holes

For cell pack sized annuals, remove a handful of soil from the ground and lay it next to the hole.
For gallon sized annuals, you will need a hole that is about 6 to 8" deep and about 4-5" wide.

If you have soil that is solid and hard to dig into, you will need to remove a larger amount of soil and amend it. For the cell packs I would switch from a hand trowel to a spade and scoop out one shovel full for each plant. For the gallon sized annuals dig out 10-12" wide and 10" deep.

Soil Amendments

Top soil that is sold in bags at your local retail store is low quality stuff. That's why it is so inexpensive. It clumps up easily which is the condition you are trying to get rid of.

Try to locate a product called "complete planting mix", it is a combination of top soil, cow manure and peat moss. This stuff is a dream to work with, doesn't clump up and doesn't blow away in the wind. I use it for planters, window boxes and soil amendment.

You can use Sphagnum Peat Moss also known as just Peat Moss. It's also great to use. I use it straight from the bale without wetting it first.

Toss a handful of your amending material onto the pile of soil you removed from the hole and mix it together.

Remove Plant From Cell Pack

Don't grab the top of the plant and pull. It might have its feet firmly planted in there.
Squeeze the bottom of the cell pack to loosen the soil. Tilt the container so the plant slides out.
I usually tip them over above the hole so any loose material falls into the hole.

Rough Up The Roots

This step is hard for some people. I can remember the first time my supervisor (at a garden center) saw me planting and roughing up the roots. I didn't realize what she was gasping about at first, it was just the way I'd always planted things. I thought everyone did it the same way.

The plant you slipped out the cell pack can either have mostly soil packed tightly or a solid mass of roots.
If it is mostly soil, you just push your fingers up from the bottom into the mass of soil and loosen it. Spreading out the roots in the process.
If it's mostly roots you rip off the bottom 1/4" of roots and then pull the center apart.

It sounds violent, but you want to the roots to spread out into the soil. If you don't roughen them up a little, they tend to continue growing around and around in a circle sometimes strangling themselves.

Planting Annuals

Place the plant into the hole so that it sits at the same growing level as it did in the container you pulled it from.
Sometimes you will need to push a little soil back into hole, sometimes you will need to pull more out.

Once you have the plant placed at the correct height and centered in the hole, you can backfill it. This is simply pushing the amended soil back into the hole around the plant. Gently tamp the soil down around the plant with your hand.

When planting large masses of annual flowers, use a bulb planter that attaches to a drill for making your holes.

Watering Annuals

Once you have finished planting annuals in an area, you should water them in. The water only has to go down as deep as the holes you dug, so sprinkling the soil from the top will work.
If you are planting annuals in cool weather you can water again the next day. If you are planting annual flowers in hot weather and it's early morning, you might water them again in the late afternoon.