How to Care for Petunias – Video Demo

Learning how to prune petunias can be extremely frustrating. Petunias get leggy after awhile, grow less blooms and in general start to look ratty after a few months. After years of my container planters with petunias looking gross, I finally learned how to properly cut back petunias in order to keep them growing blooms all summer and looking healthy.

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

Take a look at that again – pruning and deadheading petunias do not mean the same thing!  Keep reading to learn the difference between the two phrases and how to properly do each!

Deadheading is simply the removal of old or dead flowers on your petunia plant. You deadhead in order to remove dying blooms to not only make your garden or containers look better, but also to increase new blooms.

Without deadheading, a plant may stop producing blooms altogether.

I find deadheading to be one of the most peaceful things to do. During the summer, I often sip my coffee while deadheading, or have a glass of wine in the evening while walking around and tidying up my planters!

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 to encourage new blooms. Deadheading sends a signal to the plant to start pushing new buds.

With pruning you’re encouraging new stem growth to create fuller plants. Both work together, and yet seperately at once. You want to encourage both blooms and stems. This is how you’ll get those gorgeous hanging planters, groundcover or cascading petunias in container planters that are lush, full and packed with blooms!

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. 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. You want to include the seed that’s attached to the stem.

The absolute worse thing you can do is pluck the bloom off and leave the base of the flower on the plant.

By plucking off the bloom only you’re not at all signaling to the plant to create more blooms. Plucking the base let’s the plant know “Hey! I need to create more buds for blooms!” Pulling the flower only is cosmetic only, but the plant has no idea you’ve removed it!

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

Caring for petunias is especially important in containers. In ground cover, you can often get away with not maintaining petunias because they are likely lumped in with many petunia plants, or other flowers that can cover up the lack of blooms or leggy plants.

In hanging baskets, or containers with trailing petunias it’s much more pronounced to caring for them is much more imperative.

But in general, no one wants to have wilted, infested potted plants or straggly plants. It’s just not appealing. We all want to keep our plants healthy. The more health your plant has, the more it will grow and thrive.

Pruning is about focusing on the legginess of your plant. Pruning encourages the fullness of the plant itself, not the blooms.

To prune properly, you’ll want to prune back 1/3 of the long stem itself. 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.

My philosophy is to prune 1/3 of each stem throughout 1/3 of the plant. Doing this regularly keeps everything in working order – with growth of both new stems and new blooms. I think of it as giving the plant a solid haircut regularly, but not shaving the head completely!

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.

Usually you will see your potted petunias start to wither around mid summer. The heat is up the sun is scorching, and the plant is tired. This is part of the journey of gardening, 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 blooms.

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

This video is a fan favorite and one of my most viewed videos on YouTube.

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.

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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!