Want petunias to spill over the pot? Learn pinching and make clever use of props, and you'll easily become a master gardener

Petunia is a very heat-tolerant, pot-spilling bedding flower plant, suitable for spring sowing. But its high looks and bright colors attract people, so plenty of flower lovers choose to plant it in autumn and tend it carefully through winter, in order to harvest a brilliant, lively and vigorous spring.

If you want petunias to spill over the pot, you need to do the topping and pruning work well, and if you want them to grow healthily and bloom, then how to get them through the winter, and how to give them enough light (petunia is a long-day plant, and only a long enough day length can make it bloom) are separate issues to consider. Today, let's take a look at how to top and prune petunias.

The petunia you have on hand now is certainly a small seedling, possibly one you sowed and raised yourself in autumn, or possibly a potted seedling you just acquired recently. You need to top it (remove the new shoots at the tips of the stems), and the cutting standard can be set as leaving 1-2 leaves on the stem. Whenever a branch grows more than 2 leaves, top it promptly to encourage it to keep branching - one becomes two, two become four, four become eight - so it grows fuller and fuller. When it reaches the stage of vigorous growth and a dense plant shape, repot it.

Repotting means moving the small seedling from its original size pot into a larger pot, so the plant's roots have more space to absorb nutrients, promoting plant growth and speeding up branching.

Because petunias are planted in autumn and winter, and because the day length is on the short side, petunias branch relatively quickly, so you need to pinch them promptly to avoid unnecessary nutrient consumption. Generally after about a month the petunia can form a lush, glossy green "grass ball", and with careful care it will bloom.

If you love a "flower ball" deeply, besides relying on the plant's own branching ability, you can also use an external aid - a special flower pot for pot-spilling flower balls!

It is not an ordinary wall-mounted flower pot. Besides planting in the soil surface, its body also has slots where plants can be established. The design principle is "one isn't enough, make up the number; if your skill isn't up to it, add money". Of course, root growth will be limited by the number of plants established there, but with so many plants it would be hard not to "spill", making it a choice suited to flower lovers who lack experience but pursue a flower ball. If you directly use already flowering plants to fill this pot, then the flower ball is finished in no time ~ 360 degrees with no dead angles, and you turn around and become a "master gardener".