When it's time to remove petunias

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Petunias are wonderful plants. They flower like crazy, and even the foliage is attractive, with a bit of a tropical shape. And they even smell good! So to me they're worth the trouble of planting them every year. And you have to do that, because petunias are annuals, and that means that they only grow for one season, and then they die.

So don't panic if your petunias look like the ones in the photo - if they've been in the ground for several months. All of the water and fertilizer in the world won't keep an annual alive once it's done its thing. The only thing to do is to remove it, wait for the next season and plant a new one. In the meantime there's some cleanup that you have to do.

Here in the Phoenix, Arizona area, annuals are planted at the beginning of winter (it never snows here) and they die when the heat starts coming back, which is does in May. A nice sunny location this past winter has turned into an area that is way too hot, and so the petunias have to go.

Petunias at the end of their life cycle.

This morning my petunias looked terrible. The blooms had almost all stopped, and the foliage with dry-looking and wrinkly, and I knew it was time to trash the plant.

But I didn't pull it up, I cut it and left the roots in the ground. They'll decompose and become part of the garden. But the plant itself was thrown away. The next step was to cover up the hole, visually, which I did with river rocks. That's one of the nice things about garden design with river rocks, they're easy to move around. I have some blooming dwarf palm trees, and the dried fruit makes nice mulch, so as they dry up I'll cover up the area with that. I like organic mulch that's supplied for free, from my trees!

OK, looks like summer is officially on its way, and here in the Phoenix area that means the end of annuals. When it cools off again, in October, I'll replant with new petunia plants.

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