You need to keep them well watered. Mine love the heat and sun! I also pinch them back in the beginning and I always deadhead. I even have some that must have seeded in the pot because they came back this year.

Don't give up!

Oakleyok- Don't plant wave petunias, just put three or four petunias together in a big pot. They won't look like much in the first week or so, but they will grow and be beautiful. I don't deadhead much or pinch them back, but just let them grow. Also, leave the soil about three inches below the pot. This way they grow up and over, not just over and it gives you a lot more room for watering.

I have two 18" square pots from Lowe's with a star jasmine and three white petunias in each one. They look great together, although the star jasmines don't get a chance to grow much, before we have our first frost. They have full sun with afternoon shade around 5:00. I water them about every other day, to the very top of the pots. A smaller pot would probably have to be watered more often. I just use regular potting soil in the pots. Don't give up and treat them like a well-watered weed...they'll probably do fine, once you quit paying so much attention to them :)

Those Petunias really do need lots and lots of water. They crisp and wilt really easily and then just don't look as great after that even when you water them.

I have some really pretty red ones around the garden and I made a homemade hanging basket of that same trpe also. THey look great.

Petunias are fertilizer hogs. I give mine fertilizer every two weeks and they just keep right on blooming.

They get watered often, especially the one's in the pot. I sometimes think our heat is just too strong for them.

I do admit I've been lax on feeding, so I'll do it today or tomorrow. It's just too hot to be outside more than five minutes!

I still wanna see pictures. :)

Oakly, if you really want petunias, you can have them! I grow the shocking purple non-hybrid types which withstand weather better than other types. You can grow easily from seed:
Laura Bush, old fashioned vining (they don't climb, but they do weave) and a few other species petunias. I also grow some native petunias - "Mexican" types which are taller, and then some little low growers. There are even some which pop up in shade here, and are now colonizing a shade garden at the church I attend!

A picture for you :-)

Those are the only petunias I have. They are Blue Wave and Avalanche. The Blue Wave have a nicy spicy scent in the evening so make a nice plant for an entrance. They don't get enough sun there and I don't fertilize enough (they get slow release fertilizer in the box when they are planted) so they don't do as well as they could/should, but they do well enough that I plant them every year. I used to use Tidal Wave Silver as the white companion but I think I like this year's pure white one better.

Cute puppy. Gorgeous petunias.

I can't grow them either. They either get eaten by caterpillars or sucked dry from white flies.

Edna

Here's some of mine,but no weeping allowed!! LOL,LOL

{{gwi:702369}}

{{gwi:623616}}

{{gwi:623617}}

I have more in my albums,but photobucket is kinda slow today,and i left my patience in the bed this morning.LOL Enjoy.
Kathi

No weeping allowed, we all have plants we have problems with for one reason or another. :-)

Here's PW's 'Pretty Much Picasso' which has been a great plant but is starting to fade a bit. I probably haven't fed it enough. Pic taken awhile ago. Still looks *OK* and I'm leaving it to see if it perks up. If not I'll rip it out but it's a petunia I will buy again.

{{gwi:728753}}

The tag on this said it's an Easy Wave Blue which IMO is misnamed. The tag shows a pic of the same color as mine which I'd call fuschia, not blue. This wave is not as 'abundant' as other waves I've had. This pic taken today and I've fed and watered these less than the Picasso and they've held up better so I'd buy them again.

{{gwi:736938}}

I also bot a large flat of the old style ordinary dark purple petunias because I almost always get them and they were really slow taking off but are starting to grow larger and are blooming well. Don't have a pic.

Petunias really require heavy feeding and lots of water. Not easy care but so pretty and fragrant.

I'm weeping. :( I see pictures like those above and always plant them in the Spring and get awful results.

I think I have both Easy Wave and Wave. They don't get bushy and they're too tiny to clip back.

And people say Petunias are easy to grow. Yeah, right! lol.

The good thing is I can grow other plants well, so I'll just scratch these off my list. sniff sniff.

Oh, those white petunias are gorgeous. I'm planting more white in the garden next year because they really stand out in the evening.

Wow--gorgeous petunias, everyone! Mine are like the poor relation, but I'm posting them because the double whites were an impulse buy (late spring sale), and I'm really happy with them.

Petunias really ARE easy. No pics, but I have several in pots and mixed containers (I don't plant any annuals in the ground).

I have some peppermint petunias (deep pink/white stripe), white petunias in a mixed container and several million bells and another variety which I can't think of the name (LOL) that are all in the petunia family. I water daily and feed weekly.

Alisande - love those double white petunias. I usually have some pale pink and lavender double ruffled petunias, but either my nursery didn't have them this year or I missed them (they sell out fast).

tina

Only problem I've had is in one mixed container, I have dusty miller, double rose begonia, ivy and a white petunia. Found a BIG FAT WORM the other evening and noticed the holes in the petunia blooms and a few ivy leaves. Got rid of the worm (couldn't find any more) and sprayed with soap water.

I think what I'm going to do next year since I love the beauty of Petunias so much, is splurge at a good garden center that has nice sized Petunias already established in the pots.

I'm wondering if I can't grow them because I buy the piddly little single plants?

Tina, the one I have on the porch, while nothing to write home about, is a lot better than the one's I have in the ground.

Oakleyok,
Those hanging ones i showed in my pictures i bought already planted at Lowes.DS gave me money for mothers day and that's what i bought myself.The others i bought in 6 packs and planted where i wanted them.I don't have any in the ground,all mine are in pots of some sort.

Alisande,i love those double whites also.Doubles seem hard to find here.I saw some earlier in the year at K Mart but they had been totally neglected,and they didn't want to mark them down,so i left them there.

Lucky gal i love your second picture,what a pretty combo.TFS
Kathi

What a nice thread.
woodyoak, love the picture of your porch area, the puppy (Lhasa?), the gorgeous petunias.
todance, white flies last year made me swear to never have petunias again. But I was weak this spring and no white flies so far, for some reason.
tina, the Jung Seed company (catalog and on line) has the most lushous double ruffled seeds.
luckygal in Zone 3, how you must savor every single minute in your lovely garden with such a short season. I will no longer bemoan by Zone 5 status.
Pat