Wanna be green thumb

So, we are, or I should say I am having a slight problem with my flowers… mainly my hanging baskets. D and I have watered, merical growed them, rotated them, picked dead leaves and flowers till we were blue in the face…. to only find that they still are not doing so “hot”.

These hanging baskets, purple petunia’s, are on our front porch. They get a lot of sun, mostly afternoon and evening sun. They are well watered, I also make sure that they are not over watered. The leaves are drooping like they do not get enough water and the flowers are half dead and half alive.

Here is what I have tried:

1.       I have three hooks, we rotate the flowers to a different hook after watering.

2.       We have “fed” them

3.       I have skipped watering them when the soil feels damp

4.       We are currently trying to take them down and put them in the shade on days we are not home or days the sun is hot hot.

I am at a loss of what to do……. Any suggestions???

I also just pulled most of my dead Pansies. Yes you read that right… I bought a flat of Pansies planted them everywhere, in five pots and by an outdoor light we have. The Pansies by the light are all dead every one of them. Two out of the five pots had three clumps of pansies; I pulled all but one clump in each pot. My third pot all dead. My fourth pot… is dyeing…. my fifth pot doing well.  I thought about location, they are all in the sun none of them get more shade/sun than the other.

I am at a loss what to do with these also… Nothing will bring them back… but what about next year… I love their colors….

I will be buying a few more flowers unwillingly here in a week or two. I hope to fill in the bald spots in my pots. Any suggestions on what type of flower I should buy?  I truly was thinking of just planting seeds in the pots and see what happens.. good idea bad???

Please help this wanna be green thumb out….