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Key Points
- Insufficient sunlight, inconsistent watering, and nutrient deficiencies are common causes of droopy, leggy spiller plants.
- Removing faded flowers and trimming back long stems encourages bushier growth and continuous blooms.
- Repot perennial spillers before they become rootbound to support healthy roots and long-term growth.
Adding spiller plants alongside the dramatic central thrillers and voluminous fillers creates a soft, cascading movement along the edges of your containers. However, they can quickly go from lush to limp without the right care or conditions.
Whether you’re growing trailing petunias, creeping Jenny, lobelia, or sweet potato vine, just a few simple care adjustments can help keep your spillers healthy, full of foliage, and in bloom.
We asked gardening experts to share their tips for how to revive drooping spiller plants so your containers continue to look their best throughout the growing season.
Meet the Expert
- Scott Douglas is a licensed professional landscape architect and director of the Hahn Horticulture Garden and Instructional Faculty at Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences.
- Anton Ledin is a trained gardener and in-house plant expert at Planta.
Offer Enough Sun
One of the biggest influencers of how well spiller plants grow is light. If your trailing plants don’t get enough sun, they start stretching towards the nearest light source, producing long, weak stems instead of desirable, dense, cascading growth.
Most sun-loving spillers need at least six hours of direct sunlight daily. Providing the right amount of light helps keep plants compact, flowering, and flourishing, while preventing problems before they start.
Scott Douglas, director of the Hahn Horticulture Garden at Virginia Tech, recommends paying attention to how sunlight reaches your containers throughout the day.
“Rotate containers and hanging baskets periodically so one side is not always in afternoon shade,” he says. “The pot itself could cast enough shade that one side is in shadow in the afternoon or hanging baskets on hooks under the eave of your house may result in one side sitting in heavy shade.”
Water the Right Way
Container plants dry out much faster than those growing in the ground; consistent watering keeps your spillers—and the other plants in your pots—from drooping due to a lack of moisture.
According to plant expert Anton Ledin, most plants develop a healthier root system and perform their best when they’re watered deeply rather than with frequent, shallow watering.
“Deep watering encourages roots to grow farther into the soil, making plants more resilient during hot or dry weather,” Ledin says. “Keeping soil consistently moist (but not waterlogged) also reduces stress that can slow growth or flowering.”
Water deeply once the top inch of soil feels dry. This could be a daily task when the weather is hot, especially when your spillers are in a small container or a coconut husk hanging flower basket, as the moisture evaporates more quickly.
“Don’t be afraid to stick your finger in the soil or invest in a soil moisture meter if you want to be more scientific about it,” Douglas says. “Make sure all of the soil media inside the pot gets wet—there should be water exiting the weep holes in the bottom of the container after you water.”
Feed Frequently
Every time you water your container plants, some of the limited supply of nutrients are flushed out of the potting mix. This means that feeding the right type of fertilizer is important to keep spiller plants growing vigorously.
Douglas recommends using a water-soluble fertilizer every two to four weeks.
“However, be aware that over-fertilizing could result in fast stem growth and leggy plants,” he cautions. “It’s all in figuring out a balance for your specific plants in your specific containers.”
A balanced or all-purpose formula is a good place to start, although flowering plants may benefit from fertilizers with slightly more phosphorus or potassium to support bloom production.
Check for Fertilizer
Don’t forget to check if your potting mix already contains slow-release fertilizer. If it does, you’ll want to wait until growth begins to slow before adding any extra nutrients.
Remove Faded Flowers
Not appreciating the importance of deadheading is a common mistake when growing container flowers, including those cascading spiller species.
“Deadhead continuously, as that forces the plant to focus its energy on growth and flowers instead of seed production,” Douglas recommends.
Ledin agrees, noting that removing faded flowers extends the blooming season for popular annuals such as petunias by encouraging continuous flower production.
Prune or Pinch Back Prudently
Cutting back a sparse-looking plant might feel counterintuitive, but strategically trimming long stems encourages branching, which can create denser, more balanced spillers.
“If something like a sweet potato vine is getting out of control, cut it back as often as necessary to keep it looking the way you want it to,” Douglas says.
Vigorous growers may need trimming several times during the season. For tired flowering annuals, a more substantial mid-season trim can be rejuvenating and help extend the growing period.
“For something like a petunia, you could cut long stems back by half, pruning just above a leaf node,” Douglas says.
He recommends applying a balanced liquid fertilizer after pruning to give plants the nutrients they need to recover quickly.
Repot Before Plants Become Rootbound
Well-cared-for perennial spiller plants will continue to grow every year and eventually become too large for their containers. When the plant’s roots start to fill the entire pot, it won’t leave room for enough water, air, or nutrients.
Usually, moving up just one container size every two to three years gives roots more room to grow while refreshing the potting mix with nutrients that support healthy, vigorous growth.
Sunken soil levels, discolored foliage, and frequent drooping are common signs it’s time to repot your plants.
Read the original article on The Spruce
