Petunia problem

Hello there,

Whats wrong with my petunias?
The stems and leaves look great and moust of the flowers, but i have notised that some flowers are closed and droops and are sticky and weat,can it be that i water them too much?

It might be the natural progression of the flower. I've noticed the flowers seem a little short lived, but they flower so abundantly its hard to notice. I know when my flowers are spent they kind of get like you're describing. Hope someone comes along and can give you a definate answer!

Kristie

From your description, I agree with kls_01, sounds like the natural progression of a petunia flower. They do get rather nasty when they are spent. Are you deadheading the plants? Keep those spent flowers cut off and it will bloom longer for you.

Thank You for your answers :)

As you say, maybe its just the natural progress of the flower.
Im a Scandinavian who is working in Middle East,and "wouw" im telling you,its a challange dealing with the hot hot climat here in the "Gardening sence".
Flowers that i knew how to deal with in Scandinavia,is offcourse "acting" in a total different way here.
Have to learn more about "super hot gardening" :)

LOL Kickan, I can tell you a thing or two about gardening in the heat! Here where I live, 95-100 degrees are the norm during the summer. And you can cut the humidity with a knife.

NatureLover tell me,

Here its dry like in the dessert.
The soil is ither pure sand, or clay hard as stone.
Do you think i should give some artificial shade to my plants in the middle of the day?
Its a rented flat with a huge lawn that i have,brand new,so there are no trees or other things that can give shade.
What flowers would you recomend that can take it?
I have Portulaca , Delosperma and Celosia they are doing great.
The Cosmos the Marigold the Bougainvilla and Morning Glory are ok.
The Petunias are struggeling.
And the Zinnias were dead in a week...
What do you have?

Hi Kickan, I really cant help you with what are the best flowers for your situation as I am I UK and get more or less the same temps as you get back home, all the plants you are struggling with like the Petunias will only tolerate the strong sun for a short time and then struggle, it sounds like 2 problems really, soil being one, so is there any way you can get some compost to add to the soil and mix it through, this will help just a little to keep a bit of moisture into the roots, also the plants are annuals, so there main part in life is to grow, flower and set seeds all in the one year where as the other plants that are doing better are plants that grow then flower for many years, given some water they will survive far longer in the heat you have, as for the annuals, you need to dead head them every day once they flower, this is to trick the plants into thinking they need to make more flowers so they can then make seeds for survival, even in my climate, I sometimes have to plunge my Petunia's into a bucket of water in the cooler evenings for about an hour or so just to get the soil saturated again as really dry soil goes hard and wont soak up water as it just runs off the surface, a bit of shade should also help if you can find this, but the heat will still be there so soaking at evening will do a bit of good, dead head as soon as you see dead or dying flowers so the plants will send up more flower buds. Hope this helps you a bit and good luck. WeeNel.