How Do You Induce Winter Flowering Of Long-Day Plants?
In the 1920s, W.W. Garner and H.A. Allard noticed that some varieties of soybeans planted at two-week intervals during May, June and July all flowered at the same time. After studying several variables, they discovered it was the length of daylight that influenced when these plants flowered. They coined the terms short-day and long-day plants. Since then, scientists have learned that it is the length of the night (darkness) that initiates flowering in certain plants. Long-day plants, plants that need short nights in order to produce flower buds, include fuschia, hibiscus, begonia, larkspur and delphinium. Place your long-day plants near a south window for maximum natural lighting. Determine how many hours of natural light your long-day plants receive daily. Subtract that number from 16. This is how many additional hours of light you need to provide for the plants. Install a fluorescent lamp above the area where you will set your plants. Put one cool and one warm white fluorescent bulb
