Petunias

I love petunias and am hoping to buy hanging baskets this weekend filled with them. Dh says they need too much deadheading but it's not exactly hard work. He prefers his begonia and has a hay basket on those on the front of the house and a small bed under a central tree, usually well admired. We shall be shoehorning in a few more perennials.

I do petunias in window boxes and tubs. I've never had a problem with slugs, probably because they are above ground.

I deadhead them, but I don't enjoy doing it as they are very sticky. I love the display, but they are late this year, it just hasn't been warm enough.

Some types of petunia are self dead-heading. I think they are the Wave and Surfinia varieties. I hate that sticky feeling too fancyflowers!

AskAlice

Some types of petunia are self dead-heading. I think they are the Wave and Surfinia varieties. I hate that sticky feeling too fancyflowers!

Yes, I use Tidal Wave Petunias which don't need dead-heading.
They climb and trail which I love. I also find the slugs don't eat them. I don't see them in garden centres so buy from J. Parker's on line (other sellers are available). I pre-order after Christmas because it cheers me up to think ahead to spring. They arrived this week.
I bought some organic slug pellets for some different plants and the magpies kept eating them and trampling them so I stopped using them.

Try using crushed egg shells and coffee grounds to deter slugs and snails. Our local Dunelm offers free coffee grounds in their café.

Shysal, I've found that garlic wash works really well with my hostas to keep the slugs at bay. I got the recipe from Sienna Hostas, from whom I have bought a lot of hostas at garden shows over the years. Here's the link if you are interested:

www.siennahosta.co.uk/pages/garlic-wash-recipe

I bought 2 trays of assorted petunias yesterday, 30 in total. Cleared out and added fresh compost to my big window boxes and they look lovely today. Dead heading is a bit of a drag but satisfying.

I confess that I dislike petunias, I hate that horrible stickiness they have. However, I’ve found that mulching my pots with Strulch, which is a weed suppressant made from straw, has solved the slug problems on everything, even the dahlias. It looks nice too.

I have given up on Petunias for the reasons many have mentioned
and find Calibrachoa more hardy.
They are a trailing plant, flowers similar to Petunia but smaller, and I find them easier to grow although Sumner.

*throughout (not “although”) typo

I loathe petunias, the sticky feel, a couple of days of rain makes them look bedraggled and they seem to get leggy and ungainly later in the season. Not worth the effort.

Please avoid using slug pellets everyone as they kill hedgehogs and other wildlife. It is a horrible, painful death too. In many areas of the UK hedgehog numbers have decreased by 75% since the year 2000. They are on the red in danger of extinction list in this country.