Question
I have a hanging planter with this varitey of impatients. I've had them for
about a month and last weekend I gave them a bit of Miracle Grow and about
two days after all of my leaves turned brown and they have all wilted now and
I have kept watering them but nothing seems to be bringing it back to life. I
believe that the plant has died is there anything that I can do to bring it back
to life?

Answer
Sounds like you wanted to do something nice for your plants, and accidentally burned them with the fertilizer.

It happens.  Very sorry.  You have plenty of company.

Let's do a reality check, my friend.

You had a very nice Impatiens plant growing.  It was fine.  You got a container of Miracle-Gro, mixed it, and fertilized.  What happened?  Serious damage.

Why does this happen?  And I don't mean, why DID this happen... because this really, really does happen ALL THE TIME!

It happens because it is SO EASY to burn roots with Miracle Gro.  It is INCREDIBLY easy.

So easy in fact that last I checked, Scotts was giving refunds to people who kill their plants with fertilizer.  It's the least they can do.  Consider yourself lucky.  This was a single potted Impatiens.  Do you know how many people this year wiped out ALL THEIR GRASS with Scotts fertilizer?

Why does this happen?

Because it is SO EASY to kill your plants with this stuff.  Chemical Fertilizers, by definition, are SALTS that will fatally burn roots and leaves if too concentrated.  That also means by the way that if you fertilize a potted plant while the Soil is DRY, you risk burning those roots, too!

One more thing....

Do you know, my friend, that EVERY GARDENER WITH A GREEN THUMB HAS KILLED HUNDREDS OF PLANTS??????

I'm not kidding here.  This is how we learn.  We make mistakes!

Celebrate your mistake, Megan.  This is a day to remember -- in a happy way :)

because you learned a lot about fertilizer and plants.

Right?

Don't feel embarrassed, or guilty, or dumb.  We learn ONLY by making mistakes.  You cannot learn how to walk by reading about it.  You cannot learn to Garden by growing everything perfectly all the time.  You learn from your mistakes.  You learn by killing plants, all over the place, one by one by one by one.  And THEN you are a Gardener.

Remember, there is NO SUCH THING as a GREEN THUMB.

Today, however, yours turned a little Greener.

Thanks for writing.  Try again.