So I was at my local nursery today looking for sweet 100 tomato plants
when I came across a huge hanging petunia - gotta be three feet across.
$29.95 later it's hanging by my front door and I'll get the tomato plants
tomorrow.

It's absolutely gorgeous with lots of dark violet flowers and I'd like
to keep it that way. The hanging pot that it's in is plastic. Any hints
on care for something like this? Water it once a day? Fertilizer? I'm
located about forty miles north of New York City in Zone 5.

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Ed Clarke wrote in :

So I was at my local nursery today looking for sweet 100 tomato plants
when I came across a huge hanging petunia - gotta be three feet across.
$29.95 later it's hanging by my front door and I'll get the tomato plants
tomorrow.

It's absolutely gorgeous with lots of dark violet flowers and I'd like
to keep it that way. The hanging pot that it's in is plastic. Any hints
on care for something like this? Water it once a day? Fertilizer? I'm
located about forty miles north of New York City in Zone 5.


Once a day seems reasonable in hot weather, maybe even twice a day. You
just have to be vigilant until you get to know the plant's needs. Pinch out
spent blossoms for constant reblooming. In terms of fertilizer, you could
water with any reasonable liquid fertilizer (Peter's 20-20-20, Miracle-gro,
fish emulsion, etc.) a couple of times during the growing season and it
should be fine.

--
David J. Bockman, Fairfax, VA (USDA Hardiness Zone 7)
email:
http://beyondgardening.com/Albums

On 11 Jun 2005 02:56:04 GMT, Ed Clarke wrote:
So I was at my local nursery today looking for sweet 100 tomato plants
when I came across a huge hanging petunia - gotta be three feet across.
$29.95 later it's hanging by my front door and I'll get the tomato plants
tomorrow.

It's absolutely gorgeous with lots of dark violet flowers and I'd like
to keep it that way. The hanging pot that it's in is plastic. Any hints
on care for something like this? Water it once a day? Fertilizer? I'm
located about forty miles north of New York City in Zone 5.

Betcha it was grown with drip irrigation on continuous, very dilute fertilizer.
My big hanging baskets get dilute water soluble fertilizer once a week, and
are hooked to my drip irrigation system to keep the soil constantly moist.
Seems to work well out here with our dry, dry summers in the PNW. My timer
is set for watering late morning and early evening now. Later in the summer,
I'll add a mid afternoon watering to the program to compensate for the larger
sizes (and greater transpiration) of the plants, and the greater heat load.