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Here are Tina’s Tips to make sure you get the most potential out of the Wave Petunias she has lovingly nurtured for you:

1)      Turn the six pack all the way upside down to dislodge the plants.  There is a small button at the bottom of each “cell” that you push in, and it will help the plant slide right out with all of the roots intact.  If you try to just pull from the top, you could injure the young root system if you don’t get it all in one piece. “As go the roots, so go the shoots!” Please don’t break up the root ball before you plant!  Since these plants have been grown especially for this sale, they are not overgrown, or “rootbound.”  They are just right, so don’t tickle their feet.

2)      If you are planting in the ground, loosen the soil with a shovel or trowel and mix in some organic matter, such as compost, peat moss, or Bumper Crop to the soil before planting.  All of these things will add oxygen to the roots, which is just as important as water.

3)      If you are planting in pots, make sure you use a great potting soil like Fafard or Sunshine brand.  These have the necessary “white stuff” to make sure the roots have plenty of oxygen.  When choosing a pot, the bigger, the better.

      4)      FEED, FEED, FEED!  The only way to get these plants to grow up to an inch a day is to make sure they have enough fertilizer.  Imagine a teen-age boy standing in front of the refrigerator.  He’s growing faster than you can replace his jeans and sneakers from all of the food he keeps piling into his seemingly bottomless stomach.  Same thing with Wave Petunias.  We have experimented here on the farm by giving them six times the recommended rate of fertilizer with no adverse effects.  They thrive on fertilizer!  We recommend one heaping tablespoon of Tina’s Pixie Dust (Osmocote) under each plant before you plant it (or on top should you forget). Then another tablespoon per plant each month after that.  (If you prefer, you can feed with Miracle Gro every time you water, but that seems like a hassle to me).  To be perfectly frank, if you don’t fertilize, you might as well save your money and not buy the Waves at all. The plants will grow for a little while (since we grow all of our plants with the slow-release Osmocote in our soil mix) but when that is used up, they will stop growing, the leaves will turn yellow, and you will need to start deadheading the plants, as healthy, new shoots will no longer cover the spent flowers.  We sell Tina’s Pixie Dust AT OUR COST so that you use it and are successful.  You won’t get it cheaper anywhere else.

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