You're Probably Deadheading Your Petunias the Wrong Way
There are lots of reasons that petunias are popular. It's not just that the annuals are sweet and sunny, and come in colors from blue to purple to yellow and beyond. They also have an unusually long flowering period - blooming from spring until frost - and they're relatively easy to grow in gardens and in pots.
But there's one key aspect of petunia upkeep that you may not be getting right. Deadheading your petunias has the potential to produce more blooms where withering flowers were, keeping your garden continually colorful. If you do it wrong, though, you won't get that new growth.
The Right Way to Deadhead Your Petunias
Deadheading petunias is not just about removing wilting, brown flowers. If your goal is to get more in their place, you also need to take off the plant's developing seeds. Remember: the plant wants to reproduce. When you remove those seeds, the plant tries again, and you get more blooms.
Related: Everything You Need to Know About Growing Impatiens
Social media user The Parsonage Gardens (@theparsonagegardens on TikTok) has a simple tutorial that takes her followers through her method. Here's how she does it.
@parsonagegardens You're probably deadheading your petunias wrong Stop pinching the bloom and do this instead if you want fuller healthier plants all season long #GardeningTips#PetuniaCare#FlowerGarden#GardenHacks#Deadheading
original sound - The Parsonage Gardens
Rather than pinching off spent blooms alone, she says to gently remove the entire flower stem, down to the nearest set of leaves. "When you truly deadhead, you have to go back on the stem and pull it off," she says. "Then it signals to the plant that it needs to send out two new shoots, and if you just pull off the petal and leave that base in there, it doesn't signal anything to the plant."
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She shows visually how she pinches all the way at the base each time, and comes away not just with a withered flower, but with a good amount of stem.
Simple Techniques Make a Big Difference
This isn't rocket science - but if you don't have the key information, it may feel like it. "I started doing this and got huge blooms," wrote one commenter on the video. "I didn't know this either! Thought just getting the spent flower was enough!" wrote another.
Other commenters noted that to make true deadheading easier - especially if you have plenty of petunias - you can use scissors rather than pinching with your nails over and over. But whatever method you choose, as long as you are removing the flower stem and not just the petals, you should see the blooming, colorful, cheery - and supremely satisfying - results.
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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 8:33 AM.