What is wrong with my hanging basket?

Question

The smaller flowers in it never really seemed to grow and are now wilting. The petunia started off very strongly and grew quite large but is now wilting and very sticky with only smaller flowers sprouting. However the geraniums seem to be doing fine. The basket gets watered correctly and gets sun. Any suggestions on what I can do to bring it back to life?

Answer 1

the wilting of the flowers can only suggest one thing and that is the need to water them more often.

the stickiness on the petunia flowers is natural and is the same with all petunias, remember to remove the dead flower heads as often as you can.

the only other point that could be a problem is if it is in a position where it is moved around by the wind this could cause the plants to be unhappy.

one way to water the basket is once a week stand the basket in a bucket (bucket size needs to be sufficient for the basket to sit with the bottom half of the basket standing in water).

do this in evening out of direct sunlight let it sit there for 30 minutes long enough to let all the compost dampen.

carry on feeding the basket with any of the plant feeds or even tomato feed these will all help the flowers.

finally you may be to late if the plants have wilted to much, so get some more of the smaller plants and replace them.

good luck.

Answer 2

If its wilting its not getting enough water - we water ours twice a day, early morning and late evening to avoid sunlight burning the leaves, and they get a significant amount of water. Feed them once a week with tomato feed.

Try taking them down and making a hole with your finger to see if they are wet under the top soil.

I'd also dead head the petutunia as this encourages growth although they are always quite sticky. The geranium may just be hardier than the other plants or more of a bully so it gets all the water and nutrients.

Otherwise it may be that they are in too strong a sunlight and can't cope with it.

Answer 3

give it some tomato feed now then  every week. and are you sure its geting enough water. it must be watered daily even when its been raining.