Deadheading Petunias: How To Deadhead Petunia Flowers

Petunias are among the most popular of garden flowers. They're easy to care for, inexpensive, and fill the garden with a large variety of colors all summer long. Unfortunately, those colorful blossoms die off quickly, leaving you the job of deadheading petunias. Do you have to deadhead petunias? Only if you want to avoid straggly green stems without blooms for at least half of the season. Keep your garden colorful and productive by deadheading your petunias.

Do You Have to Deadhead Petunias?

Why remove spent petunia flowers? Plants live to reproduce themselves, and annuals, like petunias, create blooms to form new seeds. Once the bloom browns and falls off, the plant spends its energy creating a seed pod filled with seeds. If you clip off the old bloom and the forming pod by deadheading, the plant will start the process all over again. Instead of a straggly stem covered in brown pods, you'll have a bushy plant with constant blooms through the entire growing season.

Petunia Deadheading Info

Learning how to deadhead petunia plants is one of the simplest jobs in the flower garden. The basic petunia deadheading info consists of two rules: clip off the blooms once they turn brown and cut the stems directly above the next set of leaves. This job is simple enough for school children to complete and often makes a good chore for kids to help in the garden. You can remove the blooms by pinching them off with a thumbnail, but it's easier to use a pair of snips, scissors, or garden shears. Little gardeners can even use their safety school scissors, turning them into their very own first gardening tool. Follow the stem down to a pair of leaves and clip it right above. The plant will bush out, creating even more flowers than before.