Family: Solanaceae
Common name: Petunia
It’s difficult to find flowers with more colors, color combinations and exuberance that Petunia flowers for your garden. They come in a wide variety of colors from white, yellow, pink, orange, red, magenta, purple, even black; and all kinds of combinations of these colors.
There are Petunia flowers with white patterns along the edges, radiating along the center of the petals or even speckled all over the petals. The plants usually grow to a height of 1 meter, blooming profusely in summer. There are 4 common types of Petunia, depending on the size of the flowers:
Grandiflora Petunias have flowers that are 3-4 inches in diameter. Multiflora Petunias have smaller flowers, but they bloom more abundantly. Milliflora Petunia flowers are even smaller at about 1 inch diameter. And Spreading or Wave Petunias grow horizontally and fill a pot in no time.
Wave Petunias are further sub-divided into Easy wave, Shock wave and Avalanche petunias, depending on how much they spread or hang.
Petunias also have the most brilliantly named cultivars like Carpet series, Heavenly lavender, Sugar daddy, Rose star, Celebrity, Madness and many more. All species need excellent sunlight to promote blooming. They also need regular pruning and fertilization to prevent the plant from becoming scraggly. They are drought-tolerant and can do without water for many days.
Propagation is from stem cuttings or seeds.
Image credits: Shino Thomas
