How to get the most blooms from petunias

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Petunias are wonderful. Even though they're annuals, and only live a few months, it's a wonderful life, filled with flowers. Here in the Phoenix area they're planted in the fall, and when the heat of the summer comes on, they die. Back where I grew up in Minnesota, of course, they're planted in the spring, and bloom all summer long. They're one of my fondest memories of visiting my grandmother.

To get the most blooms from petunias you have to do two things 1) deadhead them and 2) water - a lot.

Deadheading simply means pulling off the spent blooms, which I do every morning while I'm having my coffee. If you're new to it, you can easily recognize the spent blooms which get all shriveled up, and as your eye sharpens you learn to recognize blooms that haven't shriveled up yet, but are done blooming, by the way that they hang their heads. And since petunias look their best with continuous deadheading, it's good to have them in a place in your garden that's easy to reach. My petunias are in my backyard, right next to my patio.

One of the things that I remember doing for grandma was watering the petunias. And even in Minnesota, they would start to wilt a bit without daily watering. And here in Arizona, where rain is sparse, they definitely love extra water. My petunias get water from the watering system, and I also hand water, especially now as the weather starts to warm up. Of course when it gets really hot, they die.

So there you go. Go deadhead your petunias and give them a nice drink of water! Then stand back, they'll bloom like crazy!

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