Howdy from deep East Texas,
i have been lurking on this forum for quite a while. this is the first time i have posted here, though. i have a question about my dwarf Mexican petunias "Katie". this is my first year with these plants, planted about 20 in a border. they were all lush and beautiful until the repeated freezes. now they are pretty sad looking, kinda burnt and flattened. anyway, i understand they will come back next year. the question is, do you cut them back, if so how far? or, do you just let them go until the spring? maybe some of you have had some experience with them. thanks so much,
tracie
Question about Dwarf Mexican Petunia "Katie"
Tracie, you can cut them back down to one or two inches from the ground and they will be just fine.
Josephine.
thanks so much for the info. the poor things look so sad! btw, when do they normally start growing in the spring? will they bush back out pretty quickly? i understand that they are not as invasive as their larger relatives. has that been your experience? i hope i didnt make a mistake planting so many of them, if they are invasive, that is. sorry for all the questions, but as i stated, i havent grown this plant before and am wondering how it is going to do next year. thanks again
tracie
They have not been invasive in my garden, although some people have trouble with them.
Mine have just gotten thicker, and filled out. If you have any come up where you don't want them just pull them out.
The plants should start growing again when the weather warms up in the spring in your area.
Josephine.
Welcome! I have had the dwarf petunias for a few years. They are not invasive although they spread. You may have your border filled up quickly. Mine usually come back alittle later than some other perennials. I agree that they look pretty sad when they "die"
thanks for the warm welcome and information. this forum is on my "watch" list and i lurk here and read the posts a lot. it is fun to see all the folks from texas. also, so many plants perform differently in our area than in many other areas of the US. it is nice to see the experiences of fellow Texans.
tracie
Welcome, aggiegirl. The Texas forum is usually the chattiest of all but everyone must have been really busy in December because we fell down to #23.
Come girls and boys, lets talk while it is so cold we can't do anything but look at pictures of our gardens past and make plans for this year.
LouC
Hi, Aggie Girl,
I've also been growing Katies for a few years. Mine do spread, more than I'd like, but it took a couple of years before they started doing that. They aren't the thugs in my garden that their taller relatives are.
I don't usually bother to cut them back. I tend to be "lazy" in that area, because my gardening philosophy tends to run towards letting nature take its course whenever I can. Also, I have too many! But it sure won't hurt them if you do. It might help you keep them under control when they get big.
Mine also come back a little later than the early perennials, but by May they're covered with flowers. So pretty.
louc., you mean the forums are kept up with as far as their "business"? who beat us? lol.
Just about everybody Barbara, people have been hibernating here.
Josephine.
In my garden Katie ruellias are most definitely vigorous and I have found seedlings growing several ft away from where they were initially planted. (is that invasive?) Regardless, all is forgiven when they are in bloom, they're so pretty! Also easy to remove unwanted ones.
In Jan/Feb I whack mine down to the ground and by May they are approx 8" tall. I've seen them grow as tall as 2 ft but I personally prefer to see them as a short groundcover.
I'm in z9a, don't know if that makes a difference an allows me to be merciless with this plant without any ill effects. Cooler temp gardeners might not be able to be as ruthless with the whacking.
thank you all for the welcome. i have mine planted in full sun, partial sun and some will only get a few hours of sun a day. do you think those will bloom alright? do these guys need quite a bit of sun to bloom? i was trying to find a pretty border plant that i didnt have to replant every year. i am finally getting tired of planting flat after flat of annuals! way to much time and money spent each year. of course, my current obsession is daylilies. started "collecting" them about 6 months ago and i keep finding more that i want.
hey, mama, how are you doing? did you guys have a good Christmas?
tracie
hello, tracie. we did have a really nice Christmas even though i suffered with 3 different tooth aches and i was "UNDER THE INFLUENCE" much of the time. lol.
if you find that you want more or different colors a plant that is sometimes perennial even here that i like is snapdragons. not too tall and bloomed it's heart out the YEAR OF THE DROUGHT. i could not believe the hardiness of them. also, some of the perennial dianthus are just gorgeous. i have one that has returned for about 4 yrs. now.
I am sorry to hear about your tooth problems. i know how that hurts. i love snaps, have quite a few planted right now. but, it seems like none are blooming right now. they are all healthy, but no blooms. i know that they pretty much fade away when the weather gets too warm down here for them. i love dianthus, too. i didnt realize that they would come back, or would bloom all winter, until last year. but, like the snaps, they kinda melt away in the heat here. might also be the exteme humidity. i planted flats of dianthus as a border last year in the spring, they look gorgeous until the real heat hit and then a bunch just melted.
tracie
The NE gardening forum always seems the busiest to me, always at least one thread or better going on the "recent posts" homepage! A nice lively bunch who welcomes anyone north east of somewhere. :)
Aggie, good questions. I had these at my last house. On their 2nd year they were soooo full I had to dig up and divide them. Obviously I did something wrong, they looked good a few more weeks then wilted terribly. I dug them out and put in something new.
maybe it's the kind of dianthus you have. i have one that is absolutely gorgeous. and it blooms in the heat...not as much but if you keep it deadheaded it blooms for a very long time. mine is the kind that has those whitish-green spiky leaves and not the one with green leaves.
Is it "firewitch" dianthus?It was one of the plants of the year. To get back to the petunias...I also have them everywhere. They are great for color in the shade.
so they do still bloom in the shade? that is great to hear! i was afraid i was going to have a bunch of pretty leaves and no flowers. thanks
tracie
http://justgardeners.com/hrsc/articles/art_dianthus.html
here's an article on dianthus. mine must be the caryophyllus. it looks like that picture but my flower is a gorgeous bright pinky peach. i did find a few other shades last year but i don't know how well they will do here. the peachy one is really pretty when the whole clump is blooming as the plants are thick with blooms. deadheading is necessary though. but when it's blooming it kind of looks like flowers in a vase. i love this plant. can you tell? lol.