Petunia

Name: Petunia, Calibrachoa.

Height: 20–100cm wide by 10–40cm tall.

Foliage: Green and downy with rounded tips.

Climate: all areas.

Soil: well-drained, improved with compost.

Position: full sun or part shade (need at least 6 hours of sun).

Flowering: year-round in warm climates.

Feeding: Feed fortnightly with a liquid fertilizer. 

Watering: Daily in pots and while establishing. Water when soil dries out.

Caring for your Petunias
Petunias are fairly heat tolerant, so you shouldn’t have to worry about watering them frequently. A thorough watering once a week should be sufficient (unless there are prolonged periods of drought in your area). Avoid watering shallowly, as this encourages shallow roots.

Note: The spreading types of petunias and those in containers will require more frequent watering than those planted in the ground.

What to Do With Leggy Petunias

By midsummer, most petunias tend to get leggy, producing blossoms at the tips of long, leafless stems. To keep petunias tidy and flowering, we prune the shoots back to about half their length. This will encourage more branching and more flowers.

After pruning, fertilize and water the plants well to force out new growth and flowers. The plants may look raggedy at first, but they’ll rebound with more color and blooms.Remove faded, old, or dead blossoms (a practice called “deadheading”) to both improve blooms and attractiveness, especially for the larger-flowered petunias.

Deadheading prevents seed pods from competing with blooms for the plant’s food supplies. Clippings can be added to a compost pile to be recycled.