Water your annual and perennial flowers badly and you'll waste time - and have sickly plants. Water

them well and you'll save yourself time and be rewarded with healthy, beautiful blooms.
 
   
1.   Water early in the day. Watering in the cool of morning (even before dawn) minimizes evaporation

if you're using a sprinkler. It also allows foliage to dry off quickly, preventing fungal diseases. 
 
2.   Avoid wetting the blooms. Some blooms close up if wet or fall off in a hard spray. 
 
3.   Water occasionally and deeply rather than often and lightly. You want water to soak in as deeply

as possible, encouraging the plant to send down deep roots. The soil should be moist to the bottom of

the plant's roots when you insert your finger into the soil. 
 
4.   Learn to look for signs of dryness before flowers wilt, including a loss of sheen on leaves and

hard soil surrounding the plant. Never let flowers wilt. This weakens them and makes them more prone

to a host of diseases. 
 
5.   Check flowers in containers once or even twice a day, since they can need watering that often in

hot, sunny or windy weather. 
 
6.   Let technology help you. If you have difficulty keeping up with watering needs, check out your

local garden center's supplies of soaker hoses, drip emitters (including some for containers), and

timers to connect to your outdoor faucet. Or try adding water-absorbing polymer crystals to your

containers - the crystals can cut watering needs significantly. 
 
7.   Mulch (see 'eHow to Mulch Flowers'). Not only does this suppress weeds, but it keeps the soil

around your flowers cool and moist, minimizing the need for water.