"limey" wrote in message
...
Sue of Maine gave me some great advice. I've also gone into the
rec.gardens archives.
Conclusion - wave petunias have to be deadheaded and are far from the
absolutely carefree plants that the sellers promote, at least in a hanging
basket.

Since comments in the rec.gardens archives often seem to contradict each
other, here goes with my questions.

Sue tells me to "pinch off the seed pods". Does that mean pinching off
the whole little stem that the flower was on? I've a zillion of them.

The hanging basket is now about four or five feet across because of
straggly growth with flowers just at the ends. I'll cut it back after I
hear from anyone.

As Sue said ("doG - I hate petunias") she would forgive me in August if I
dumped the whole basket on the compost heap. However, it's a gift, and a
challenge to someone who doesn't know what the h*** she's doing. The
"gifter" will be here this weekend and I'd like to defend myself!

I've never grown a petunia that didn't need to be deadheaded. The blossoms
are sort of sticky, so they don't fall off by themselves. That can also make
them a chore to deadhead using just your fingernails. Get yourself a pair of
scissors like these:

http://www.cooksworld.com/Merchant3/..._Code =510620

Some garden centers sell a similar item as "florist's scissors". Same basic
thing. The other key to deadheading is beer. It's a tedious chore. You have
to find ways of making it interesting. By the way, behind each flower you
deadhead, cut back to a point that's 1/4" before the next stem, unless that
interferes with a flower that's about to open. In that case, wing it.