Petunias! Bi-colors, tri-colors, bright colors, stripes, ruffles . . . What’s not to love?

If you’ve seen petunias in July and August you know what’s not to love.  Starting off full and fluffy, as the summer wears on, petunias drop their blooms, grow long and scraggly and much less lovable.

So, what to do?  Yank them out and put new ones in?  Give up on them and replace them with a hardier plant, maybe a marigold?

However, between replacing petunias and giving up on them altogether there is a third option:  pruning them. Read on to learn how to prune petunias successfully.

Pruning petunias will keep them full and fluffy all summer long.  There is some work involved, but replacing petunias with more petunias or other flowers is also work.  And not only that, it’s expensive and it involves running around to big box stores and nurseries to see if either one has any decent flowers left.  In addition, pruning your petunias keeps your original design and color scheme in place and involves only minutes of work throughout the summer.  

To keep petunias blooming prolifically we must remember their mission, in fact the mission of all plants:  to perpetuate the species.  When the bloom on a petunia drops off its pod it creates a seed which will hopefully go on to create another petunia.  Having accomplished its mission, the petunia dies in peace, leaving behind leggy and scraggly branches without flowers.

The point of pruning is to send the opposite message to the petunia:  you have not completed your mission.  You have not set seed (because I have cut off all your seed pods). You must keep blooming, staying full and fluffy, until I decide to stop cutting them off (usually sometime in September, or sooner if we have an early frost). 

See the photo where the woman is about to cut off the pod where the bloom once grew?  You must trim the petunia BEHIND THAT pod, which holds the seed, to convince the petunia she still has work to do and must continue to produce blooms. 

Petunias have many blooms and their seed pods often hide underneath the bottoms of branches, behind other blooming flowers. If you leave pruning them until they start to look “scraggly”, you may spend anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours pruning your petunias.  It’s a tedious mission of search and destroy.

There is an easier way.  Buy a small pair of pointed scissors with colorful handles (so you can spot them in the soil) available at the Dollar Store or Michaels.  In fact, buy one for every pot and bed of petunias if they are at some distance from each other. Stick the scissors point down into the pot or bed next to your petunias.  Any time you are out in your yard inspecting or admiring your garden, check your petunias for spent blossoms and spend a minute or two cutting off the empty pods.  A minute or two every day or so equals enough time to keep your petunias glorious all season.

You can also prune for shape and form.  If, in spite of your consistent pruning, your petunias develop leggy branches, find a junction where there is new growth and cut off the branch in front of the new growth.  You can also prune any branches that are not keeping to the design or shape you wish.  Again, find a junction where there is new growth and cut off the branch right in front of it.

Do this consistently and the work will be minimal.  Your petunias will outdo themselves producing blooms to complete their mission and you will enjoy full and fluffy petunias all 

summer!

References:

https://extension.umn.edu/flowers/growing-petunias

https://icultivate.net/how-to-prune-petunias/

https://www.epicgardening.com/prune-petunias/

https://www.gardendesign.com/how-to/prune-petunias.html

Photo Credits: UMN Extension (1,4 ), Susan Ball (2,3)