Petunias are an excellent flower to add to your garden. They come in so many different vibrant colours, and they can flower from spring all the way until autumn or when the first frost arrives.
Whether you’ve put them in hanging baskets or used them to fill gaps in flowerbeds, they add a nice summery vibe to your outdoor space. But like all other plants, they have the tendency to wilt and die if they are not properly cared for. Luckily there’s an easy wa to make them bloom bigger once again, even after they’ve died off.
According to the gardening experts at The Spruce, deadheading your petunias is the perfect way to keep them healthy and ensure they carry on producing blooms.
For many flowering plants, this task needs to be done just once or twice over the blooming period. But when it comes to petunias, they can benefit a lot more if you do it more frequently.
In fact, the experts say that petunias will flower even more if you deadhead them regularly between spring and autumn.
How to deadhead petunias
The process of deadheading petunias is very simple. All you need to do is take a look at your plant and identify any dead or wilting flowers.
Then, use your fingers or a pair of secateurs to remove the blooms.
Exactly how much deadheading your plants will need depends on the type of petunias you’re growing. Professor of horticulture Cynthia Haynes said: “The larger flowering petunias require regular deadheading to keep them blooming. Newer cultivars are more prolific and don’t require much deadheading to keep them blooming all summer.”
As well as deadheading, petunia owners should also take the time to prune their plants occasionally. According to the experts, this is a great way to ‘refresh’ the plants and encourage more flowers to grow during blooming season.
If you think your plant is looking leggy, cut them back by about half. This will get rid of any faded flowers, encourage new buds to grow, and generally just create a bushier-looking plant.
Although deadheading can be done with your hands, it’s recommended to use shearers for pruning for a cleaner cut.