![]() As you learn how to grow and plant petunias, you will never be at a loss for a beautiful bloom in a full sun area. Open blooms on the petunia are best removed after planting for a more abundant show in the future. When purchasing young petunias, choose plants with a compact form and unopened buds. Double and single blooms offer a selection of solid and multi-colored flowers. Hundreds of cultivars of petunias are available to the gardener for use in a range of garden designs. Petunias allowed to go to seed will slow or stop blooming. When deadheading the growing petunias, remove the base of the flower to include seed removal. Proper petunia care involves removing spent blooms and the seeds they may produce. Proper light, water, and fertilization when caring for petunias will ensure a long season of beautiful blooms. As they are heavy feeders, petunia care will also include weekly feedings. Soil prepared before planting petunias should have well-composted organic matter worked in.Ĭare of petunias will include regular fertilization with a balanced, water-soluble fertilizer designed for blooming plants. While petunias will grow in a partially shaded location, a fuller and more abundant bloom is produced in the full sun. Spreading groundcover petunias are the pickiest about water weekly waterings should be included in the care of petunias. Spreading petunias are only 6 inches (15 cm.) tall and can rapidly cover a selected area to function as a blooming groundcover.Ĭare of petunias includes regular watering and as much sunlight as possible to promote multiple blooms.Milliflora petunias are miniature versions of growing petunias they are compact and reblooming.Multiflora petunias have smaller flowers and a more abundant bloom.This species features 3- to 4-inch (7.5-10 cm.) blooms which often grow upright but may spill over the side of your container or window box. Grandiflora petunias are the most common type of growing petunias.After learning how to plant petunias you can include them in your flower bed and container garden.įour species of petunias include hundreds of cultivars and offer a perfect addition to the home landscape: Here is a list of plants that it may be useful to pinch… but even with these plants, do look before you pinch.Growing petunias can offer long-term color in the summer landscape and brighten dreary borders with lovely pastel colors. That said, there are still older varieties around… and I’ve never seen a cosmos seedling that couldn’t use a pinch or two. ![]() Additional Tips for Growing Petunias from. Keep the soil moist but well-drained, and return them under the lights until it’s time to plant them outside. Lift out individual plants with a wooden stick or butter knife, and transplant them into potting soil. Likewise if the plant’s label suggest it branches well, is self-branching or “needs no pruning”. Transplant the seedlings into individual pots once they develop two or three true leaves. If your seedlings are producing secondary branches, they won’t need pinching. Old-fashioned basils and coleus, for example, used to shoot straight for the sky, but many modern varieties begin producing branches almost as soon as they have true leaves. Most modern varieties of annuals and herbs have been selected to be self-branching. Pinching is still used on more mature plants (shrubs and houseplants notably) to keep them in check, but pinching seedlings is a bit of a dying art. Of course, you can also cut off the bud with scissors or pruning shears… and that is still considered “pinching”. Since the bud is still soft, it comes right off. Traditionally, pinching really is done exactly like the term suggests: by pinching the growing point between the thumb and forefinger. ![]() It does slow the plant down a bit, but usually within 5 to 7 days, the seedling will be sprouting new growth. Usually, each pinch at least doubles the number of stems, giving a much denser and more attractive plant with more leaves (herbs) and more flowers (annuals). When the terminal bud is nixed, this stimulates dormant buds lower down on the plant to spring into action. Pinching means removing the terminal bud, the plant’s growing point. You used to pinch seedlings when they had 4 to 6 true leaves and it was almost universally applied to annuals and herbs, although rarely to vegetables. When my father taught me how to start plants from seed some 50 years ago, pinching was a very common practice. Pinching is just what it sounds like: you “pinch off” the terminal bud between thumb and forefinger.
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