Thanks to the skill of hybridizers, modern petunias are the answer to a gardener’s dream.
There is scarcely a place about the home grounds where they cannot be used effectively.
They give quantities of colorful flowers all summer and require little care.
Types Of Petunias In Seed Catalogs
Among the various types you will find listed in seed catalogs are the following:
- Miniatures 6” to 8” inches tall with myriads of small closely-set flowers
- Dwarfs 10” to 12” inches high with flowers 1 ½” to 2 ½” inches across in great profusion
- F1 hybrid multifloras 15” inches high with huge single, plain-edged flowers in magnificent colors
- F1 hybrid grandifloras 15” to 18” inches tall, spreading 2’ to 2 ½’ feet across, with big fringed flowers
There are also giant fringed and ruffled types with flowers 4” to 5” inches across, all with big pompon flowers.
The giants of California have giant flowers in great quantity, and the balcony petunias with trailing branches are useful for window boxes and pot gardening.
The varieties noted below are listed under one of these categories in seed catalogs.
Featuring Petunias In Neighborhoods
As I said, there is scarcely a place where petunias can’t be used to good advantage.
Last summer, a new subdivision was cheerful and beautiful in our neighborhood, with petunias pinch-hitting for permanent plantings.
Much admired was a low white house whose small foundation evergreens were supplemented with vivid scarlet Firedance petunias under the windows and circling a small lawn tree.
A gray stone house featured the heavily ruffled bright rose Prima Donna.
At the same time, another home had a riot of color along its foundation from closely set plants of the double shades Colossal Shades of Rose, pure white Sonata, and deep violet-blue Blue Lace for accent.
Incredible and lovely was planting white varieties for a red brick house, miniature Igloo making a 6-inch edging for the taller, and large-flowered Snowcap.
In the same subdivision, two neighbors on either side of a white fence worked together to achieve a harmonious color picture.
One planted deep clear red, white, pale pink, and single lavender petunias, while the other provided a carnival of color with a mixture of deeply ruffled giants of California in orchid, old rose, copper-pink, and luscious deep strawberry hues.
Great Fillers For Perennial of Hardy Borders
Just as petunias bring color to foundation plantings, they are indispensable fillers in the perennial or hardy border.
The dwarfs are fine for edging. The taller ones make a pleasing foreground for tall, stiff-foliaged lilies, gladiolus, iris, and the like.
In my garden, hardy phlox Columbia is faced down with identically colored petunias such as single-flowered Pink Glory.
I also combine white phlox, Miss Lingard, with violet-blue Lavender Lace and various white petunias.
Equally compelling is phlox Purple Heart with white and purple petunias.
Croftway Pink monarda, pale blue belladonna delphinium, and salmon-pink Cheerful petunia (early and long-flowering) compose a delightful picture in late spring and early summer.
Red petunias with such “peacemakers” as artemisia Silver King and Silver Mound, noted for their gray-green foliage, lift a too-pastel border from mediocrity, and clear red petunias are perfect companions for specific tints of pink phlox.
Any shade of red petunia is gay and sparkling with white phlox and Shasta daisies.
Fresh reds without a hint of purple in their makeup are found in Red Satin, the double Red Riches, Flaming Violet, and Fire Chief.
Bright cerise Maestro is delightful with deep blue Chinese delphinium and anchusa.
Brilliantly Colored Coral Satin
One of the most brilliantly colored petunias imaginable is the 1961 All-America winner Coral Satin.
Its flowers are single, huge, and a vibrant coral with no shadings to mar their intense yet soft hue.
Luscious texture makes this new sort impressive, too. Less vivid in tone, but stunning, is Springtime, another new introduction.
It is an F1 hybrid Grandiflora of rich salmon-pink.
The 1961 introduction Rosie promises to top this summer’s popularity poll because it starts to bloom early and continues irrepressibly until frost.
Its free-flowering nature and single rich rose flowers make each plant a living bouquet of color.
Companion Planting With Varieties Of Petunias
An all purple and lilac garden of annual flowers is a pleasantly remembered experience.
Pale lavender, lilac, and rich dark purple petunias may be massed with the following:
- Lilac and purple heliotrope
- Ageratum
- Sweet purple alyssum
Soft pink asters provide a lovely contrast.
For planting in borders beside the house, in terrace planters, and window boxes are the bicolors like:
- White and crimson Starry Eyed
- Star-patterned red and white Sabre Dance
- White and violet-blue Spin the Bottle
- The deep purple-centered and lavender veined Sugar Plum and a score of others
They can be seen anywhere at close range so that you can study their variations in coloring and marking.
Sensational is the new Calypso. Its huge single ruffled flowers show wide alternating bright rose and white bands converging toward a deep yellow throat.
Bright sunshine is needed to bring out the richness of reds and purples, but white and pastel petunias have full color even when shaded for part of the day.
We enjoy the shimmering coolness of white Snowcap seen against a boxwood hedge that shades them part of the day from our terrace.
Mounds of Dwarf Snowball encircle handsome clumps of white-flowered plantain lilies in part shade on either side of the broad steps leading to our lawn.
As an overplanting for tulips, White Cloud petunia is lovely in the filtered shade at the foot of a pyracantha espaliered against the house.
Incidentally, their fragrance is a delight on a summer evening.
My Two Favorite Yellow Petunia Varieties
My favorites among all petunias are two yellow varieties:
- Yellow Gleam
- Yellow Frills, with a golden throat
Both are exquisite in tone and especially lovely, with pale blue and soft pink flowers on the hardy border.
Growth Culture Of Annual Petunias
Petunias are among the easiest annuals to grow, and, as I mentioned, they like the sun but do well in some shade.
Moisture induces good flowers, so frequent watering during dry spells is needed.
A good loamy soil enriched with leaf mold, decayed manure, or one of the dried manures is to their liking.
You can use a commercial fertilizer but select one low in nitrogen, for nitrogen promotes leaf growth to the detriment of bloom.
For plants that start to flower in late spring or early summer, sow seed indoors in flats or pots containing vermiculite or perlite.
When the seedlings show two true leaves, transplant them to flats or pots of soil, growing them indoors until the weather warms outside, at which time they are placed in their permanent garden location.
Seed may be sown outdoors in early spring, but outdoor-sown plants may not come into flower until midsummer.
The seed is tiny, so the seedbeds must be protected from heavy rains to prevent it from washing away.
When the seedlings reach an inch or two in height, thin out those which are too crowded and move them to other parts of the garden.
Gardeners who do not have facilities for starting seeds indoors and find outdoor sowing unsatisfactory buy plants in late spring.
Such plants will often be in flower, enabling you to choose colors that exactly fit your needs.
When setting out flowering plants, removing the flowers and pinching back stems is wise to induce more compact growth and more abundant later flowering.
Seed pods should be clipped off during the summer as they form and straggling branches cut back.
Cutting flowers with long stems for arrangements is therefore doubly purposeful.
41339 by Martha Haislip