Garden

[Luvsmyfam]

is anyone else's flowers looking a little ratty?I have 4 hanging baskets of petunias and 2 potted marrigolds.my patio is very colorful because of these flowers,so I'm hoping they hang on thru summer

[Kachina624]

Have you been having very hot weather? Heat is terrible for petunias.  I would pinch them way back and hope for the best, they may not make it.  Make sure everything is well watered. 

[luvmyteddy4]

My petunia's look great but they are in part sun part shade in my flower beds. The bunnies got some of the ones that were in shorter pots so I stacked up some pots to make them taller. 

[RedTop]

@Luvsmyfam 

It's time for the petunias to have a good trim.   Snip about an inch off the long growth, all over the plant.  Within 2+ weeks you'll have a nice bushy plant ready to start blooming again.   

[Lilysmom1]

@Luvsmyfam , I did a rejuvenation of my hanging baskets yesterday.  I trimmed 2-3 inches off them.  These are large baskets from Costco.  I cleaned out some of the spent blooms from the Center and fertilized them.  They are looking good this morning.  LM

[Nataliesgramma]

Yes...I was noticing the same thing yesterday. My hanging baskets of Petunias are not as nice. I think it was the several days of rain that did it...

They don't seem to like being that wet.

I think that I will go back to million bells next year...

[Grade1Teach]

I agree with others on here -- Give your plants a good trim.  July is the time when many flowers start to lose their luster.  Most have gone through their first bloom cycle or they are beginning to get fried from the heat.  Deadheading, trimming, and cutting back will help your plants tremendously.  They won't look like much for a few weeks, but they will be working hard on making more beautiful flowers for you.

[gardenman]

A lot of flowers tend to fade a bit in the heat of summer but will revive when nighttime temps start to fall. We're about ten days from our average temperature peaking here in South Jersey. Our average low temperature here bottoms out around January 21st and our average high temperature peaks at around July 21st. In another ten days, the long slow decline of temps will begin and continue until January 21st when things will reverse and start to gradually warm.

My only issue right now is Japanese beetles eating blossoms. They'll disappear in a few more days/weeks and the plants will take off once again. I'm getting a lot of beetles this year for some reason.

[Luvsmyfam]

thank you all for responding concerning my hanging baskets. Yes,the last 4 days,illinios has had rain.before that,extreme heat.i guess you add the two,you get ratty.i will pinch off dead heads when it stops raining!