Petunias are those popular annuals that will fill our pots with colourful, trumpet shaped blooms throughout the summer months. They come in varieties of grandiflora, multiflora, milliflora and hedgiflora. Some have single blooms and some have multiple blooms.
Glorious colours of pinks, mauves, reds, whites and even multi coloured ones can be purchased from garden centres in the late spring ready to fill in those gaps in your perennial gardens.
After flowering the seed pod will develop. When it turns a beige/brown colour it is ready for picking. The seeds are very tiny … almost resemble pepper that has been shaken out on a plate. You need to be quick in harvesting the seeds as the pods spring open and the seeds will disperse quickly.
You can, of course, grow them from seed as the nurseries do. Sow petunia seeds 10 to 12 weeks before the planting out date. Fill you pot, press down the soil and water first. Wait till water has settled through pot and sprinkle the seeds on top. They need lots of light to germinate.
When the 2 true leaves develop you can pick them out and transplant. Plant outside when all chance of frost has passed. Seeds do not always grow true to the original colour of the plant, and if the plant was a hybrid they may revert back to the original colour and blooms will be smaller.
In 2013 I filled the tipsy buckets with petunias and creeping jenny. I can’t wait to fill them again this year.
The letter for Alphabe-Thursday this week is P. P for petunias.
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