Flowering plants are all around us: they line our streets, fill our gardens, and decorate our homes. In fact, flowering plants are currently the most diverse plant group on Earth. Many familiar trees, such as oaks and maples, are flowering plants. Flowers are not only beautiful and attractive to insects and humans, but they are also vital to the plant life cycle. Flowers hold the reproductive organs of the plant, which are known together as the stamen and carpelReproductive organ of a flower, which includes the ovary, stigma, and style. After fertilisation, the carpel becomes the fruit.

Fruits are the mature and ripened ovaries of flowers. The first step in fruit growth is fertilization of the carpel. Then, a fruit arises from a series of transformations that occur during the development of the fertilized carpel, resulting in the ovary of the flower maturing and ripening. Throughout this process, the cells in the carpel of the flower change so that the structural layers become the fruit.

When you walk down the fertilizer aisle at a garden center or home improvement store, you'll likely notice a wide variety of fertilizer formulations. You’ll see bags, bottles, powders, granules, pellets, sprays, and concentrates. Furthermore, you’ll discover an increasing number of organic and “earth-friendly” fertilizers. Learning more about your options can help you pick the best food for your flowering plants.

Chemical Fertilizer

Fertilizer manufacturers create artificial fertilizers by combining inorganic chemicals to form compounds like ammonium nitrate or magnesium sulfate.

Some advantages of chemical fertilizers are that they're inexpensive, readily available, and rapid-growing plants like annual flowers take up the nutrients quickly (unless the formula is designed to be a time-release fertilizer). Disadvantages include the risk of over-application, which causes burning, and the absence of any soil-improving qualities.

Chemical fertilizers come in a range of formulations, including pellets, liquid concentrates, and powders. Some products come in pre-measured packets designed to be added to the watering can, making it convenient for gardeners to apply it to containers, houseplants, or their landscape.

Foliar Fertilizer

Foliar fertilizers are liquid nutrients that plants absorb through their leaves. Not all flowers feed efficiently this way, because the waxes and hairs on some leaves act as a barrier to nutrient uptake. Flowering plants cannot receive all of the nutrients they need through their leaves, but you might be able to address some nutrient deficiencies quickly by using foliar fertilizers. Potassium is one readily absorbed nutrient in foliar feeding applications, so use foliar fertilizers in the flower garden to address potassium deficiencies.

If your flowers are exhibiting signs of chlorosis, a yellowing of the leaves, your plants might have an iron deficiency. Sometimes, the rapid results achieved by foliar fertilizers can help.

Organic Fertilizer

Organic fertilizers come from living things, like animal manure, fish emulsion, leaf molds, and non-living things, like rock phosphate or greensand.

Plantic Organic BloomDrop Liquid Plant Food For Buds, Flowers & Fruits from organic matter not only supply essential nutrients to flowers, but they also improve soil tilth. There are several advantages to using organic fertilizers:

• Don’t burn plants

• Strengthen plants’ immune systems

• Non-toxic to beneficial insects and wildlife

• Remain active in the soil for long periods

• Disadvantages of organic fertilizers include their higher cost, taste appeal to some pets, and limited formulations. Organic fertilizers are not an overnight fix—they won’t correct severe nutrient deficiencies quickly.

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Simple Fertilizer

If a soil test reveals a deficiency of one major nutrient, you can purchase a simple fertilizer, which contains only nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium as a standalone ingredient. Simple fertilizers can be chemical or organic in makeup. An example of simple nitrogen fertilizer would be one that lists only urea or ammonium sulfate as the ingredient. A simple phosphorus fertilizer might list superphosphate or ground mineral phosphate as the ingredient. A potassium fertilizer may list muriate of potash on the container.

Slow-Release Fertilizer

Technically, all organic fertilizers are slow-release, because it takes time for organic matter to decompose in the presence of soil microorganisms.3 The slowest acting organic fertilizers include insoluble mineral fertilizers, like rock potash and other rock powders.

Gardeners who prefer to fertilize plants infrequently can use slow-release fertilizers, which are coated or encapsulated to control the release of the fertilizer over a period of several weeks or months. These types of fertilizers are especially popular for houseplant care and outdoor containers.