Thread: Frost Damaged Petunia?
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Old 07-04-2006, 06:56 PM
sockiescat sockiescat is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Oct 2005
Posts: 354
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Doug Kanter "kicksave" wrote in message
oups.com...
I live in Atlanta, and despite living here for 15 years (and KNOWING
the last frost is always later than you think...), I planted hundreds
of petunia in my flower beds in nice, manure-rich beds, but didn't get
a chance to put mulch around them. That very night a cold front blew
through and temps dropped. It was above freezing most of the night, but
the temps were 30F for about 2 hours before sunrise.

When I awoke, the petunia looked fine--just a light layer of frost on
all of them. But when I got home that evening, all of the blooms had
wilted. I put mulch around them and pinched each of the wilted blooms
and hoped for the best.

It's now been 2 weeks of 60-75F temperatures, and the petunia still
haven't bloomed again. The leaves are a nice, deep green and the plants
themselves aren't wilted, but each little bud that appears turns brown
and shrivels before ever opening into a bloom.

Has the frost permanently damaged these plants? Do I need to rip them
out and start over? Or can I expect some blooms in a few weeks once the
plant has a chance to completely renew all of the buds?


Your petunias are fine. Here (upstate NY, zone 5, where summer runs from
July 7th to July 11th), petunias take an awful beating from the weather.
I've had them survive multiple frost attacks in late October, and stick
around until November when they finally give up.


it sucks when u go through so much work for that to happen. i normally dont grow petunias but i have had on my tomato plants. i dont know if this will help if it ever happens again but as long as the sun hasnt hit your plants take your garden hose and give them a wash off. i heard that from another gardener many years back and it worked for me. just thought i would share this with u. it sounds like your petunias are going to be fine just going to take them time to flower again. have a great day. cyaaaaaa, sockiescat.
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