How to Care for Petunias – Video Demo

Caring for Petunias is especially important in containers.

It’s mid-summer and the heat may be killing your once beautiful container planter. They need love and knowing how to deadhead petunias correctly is crucial.

There are two easy things you can do with Petunias to keep them full, flowering and gorgeous all summer long.

1. Learn how to deadhead petunias properly
2. Learn how to prune petunias for proper upkeep

Really we are talking about how to deadhead petunias in pots but it’s really all the same. Deadheading is simply remove old or dead flowers on your petunia plant.

Now this sounds basic but there is a right and wrong way to do it.

The wrong way, which a lot of people don’t realize, is to simply pull the flower out. It’s quick, it’s easy so it seems right but it’s not. When you just pull the petals out you’re missing the seed which is the primary part that needs to be removed.

When you go to pinch your flower, go lower to the base of the flower and pinch it off.

Make that one little change when deadheading petunias and your new blooms with thrive!

Really it’s 2-fold.

1. No one want to have wilted death infested potted plants. It’s just not appealing.
2. Deadheading petunias is part of keeping them healthy. The more health your plant has, the more it will grow and thrive.

Think of it as trimming the dead ends  off of your hair. Before you trim, your hair isn’t growing as well as it could and it looks, let’s just say, rough. But after a fresh trim your hair starts to grow rapidly and looks fresh and healthy.

Usually you will see your potted petunias start to wither around mid summer. The heat is up the sun is scorching, it’s part of it so don’t be discouraged.

This is your opportunity to give those babies another shot. My deadheading you’re actually making way for round 2 of their bloom.

Getting rid of the old dead flowers can make your petunias look bare for a little while, but no worries they will pop right back up.

We’ve covered how to dead head a petunia, but how do we prune them? First let’s cover the difference between pruning and deadheading.

At first they seem like they’re the same thing but if you look at where to deadhead petunias and where to prune them, that’s where you find the difference.

When deaheading petunias your pinching off at the base of the dead flower. When pruning you’ll need to go down on that flowers stem.

You’ll want to prune back 1/3 of the flowers long stem, not the short stem closest to the flower. Make sure you use a soft touch on this which is why I would highly recommend using pruning shears. Using your fingers is ok, but it’s really easy to damage the stem when you use your fingers.

This video is a fan favorite — as a flower lover, I love the gorgeous color and flower bud of petunia, but hot climates can cause them to come leggy and unruly.

Watch the video to learn how to deadhead petunias properly – incorrectly deadheading one will cause the plant to stop producing buds and create long leggy green plants with no blooms.

One more thing! Regular pruning is very important in order to keep full plant bushes growing in the heat.

If your like me you’re wondering what the difference is between deadheading and pruning petunias. I’ll cover that as well as how to prune petunias.

As a common rule, prune the plant 1/3 all the way around on a regular basis. This will help keep the plant growing, full and with a ton of blooms!

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I hope this deadheading petunias video helps you all learn how to dead head petunias. I adore my container planters and love to keep them looking as beautiful as possible all summer long!

Now that you know how to deadhead petunias in pots and have mastered pruning petunia flowers, you may also enjoy this post on how to keep hydrangeas from wilting!