Those darned wave petunias again

[limey]

Sue of Maine gave me some great advice. I've also gone into the rec.gardens archives. Conclusion - wave petunias have to be deadheaded and are far from the absolutely carefree plants that the sellers promote, at least in a hanging basket.

Since comments in the rec.gardens archives often seem to contradict each other, here goes with my questions.

Sue tells me to "pinch off the seed pods". Does that mean pinching off the whole little stem that the flower was on? I've a zillion of them.

The hanging basket is now about four or five feet across because of straggly growth with flowers just at the ends. I'll cut it back after I hear from anyone.

As Sue said ("doG - I hate petunias") she would forgive me in August if I dumped the whole basket on the compost heap. However, it's a gift, and a challenge to someone who doesn't know what the h*** she's doing. The "gifter" will be here this weekend and I'd like to defend myself!

[Doug Kanter]

I've never grown a petunia that didn't need to be deadheaded. The blossoms are sort of sticky, so they don't fall off by themselves. That can also make them a chore to deadhead using just your fingernails. Get yourself a pair of scissors like these:

garden centers sell a similar item as "florist's scissors". Same basic thing. The other key to deadheading is beer. It's a tedious chore. You have to find ways of making it interesting. By the way, behind each flower you deadhead, cut back to a point that's 1/4" before the next stem, unless that interferes with a flower that's about to open. In that case, wing it.

[RhondaM]

I just deadhead mine and they do just fine. I also use a super bloom fertilizer. This year has been a real good year for petunias in zone 7

[limey]

(snipped)

> Some garden centers sell a similar item as "florist's scissors". Same

Thank you, Doug, for the tips on the plants and the link to the scissors - now I'll go out and buy the beer and I'll be all set!

Dora

[limey]

Dora

Thanks, Rhonda - I'm in zone 7, too. I feed the plants in the hanging basket every couple of weeks or so with Miracle Gro.

Dora