Bedding (horticulture)
These fast-growing plants in seasonal flower beds create colourful displays, during spring, summer, fall or winter, depending on the climate.
Flowering bedding plants are also grown in containers and pots positioned on patios, terraces, decks and other areas around houses.
Plants used for spring bedding are often biennials (sown one year to flower the next), or hardy, but short-lived, perennials.
Hardy annuals sown directly into the ground early in the season (poppy, stock, sunflower, clarkia, godetia, eschscholzia, nigella, dianthus) or transplanted after purchase at a local garden centre.
Winter-hardy ornamental vegetables such as cultivars of kale and cabbage with coloured or variegated foliage are increasingly common.
They are available in retail greenhouses, farmers' markets, nurseries, garden centres and hardware stores during spring and continuing into summer.
Tender annual or perennial plants treated as half-hardy annuals, purchased as young plants, and hardened-off outdoors when all danger of frost has passed (begonia, lobelia, petunia, vinca, zinnia, dahlia, gerbera, argyranthemum, chrysanthemum, pelargonium, nicotiana, cosmos, fuchsia, etc.).
Carpet bedding employs two or more contrasting plant cultivars with a neat, dwarf habit and distinct colouring (of flower or foliage) to create geometric displays.
William Morris was an early critic, writing in 1882 that it was: "an aberration of the human mind ... when I think of it even when I am quite alone I blush with shame at the thought".
[8] This position has not been in vain, in recent years, bedding plant retailers have happily engaged his informal philosophy with the use of "thrillers, fillers and spillers" for container gardens.
This research developed environmental control practices, structures and equipment to optimize bedding plant production over the last 50 years.
The greenhouse had a coal boiler, hot water or steam system for heat, distributed through fin tubing on the periphery and possibly under benches.
The structures are 1 to 10 acres (4000 - 40,000 m2) in size with a large headhouse as a work space, material storage and loading dock.
Water soluble fertilizer metered by injectors and standard soil (growing medium) tests help optimize plant nutrition.
Bedding plant production has been consolidated into larger operations, 20 to 100 acres (80,000 - 400,000 m2) in size, driven by ever increasing sales at hardware and department stores.
Many large growers have built modern glass greenhouses, typical of controlled-environment agriculture, with open-roof[23][24] natural ventilation to reduce summer energy consumption.
Internal curtains[25] were installed to reduce winter heating cost and to manage summer light levels.
[23][26][27] The concrete floors create a closed system for fertilizer and chemical runoff to meet water safety standards.
Water soluble fertilizer metered by injectors and standard soil (growing medium) tests help optimize plant nutrition.
