If you held a flower popularity contest, petunias would certainly come away with a prize.
Beloved for their masses of colorful blooms and their easy-care nature, these plants are South American natives that have definitely found a home in North America.
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Gardeners appreciate the petunia’s multi-hued utility. It’s lovely as a specimen plant, in mass bedding plantings, or particularly in containers, with bloom-laden stems trailing over the sides of pots.
With single or double trumpet-shaped blooms in pink, purple, red, yellow, or white, this flower is often called upon to add vibrancy to the garden from spring until fall.
If their heat tolerance, or long blooming season sound good to you, maybe it’s time to start growing your own color-popping petunias.
We’ll cover the steps and strategies that will help to make the growing process go smoothly for you – and help your petunias stay healthy and continue to bloom all season long.
Here’s the lineup:
Cultivation and HistoryPart of the Solanaceae family, which includes tomatoes and tomatillos, petunias are divided into several groups that include grandiflora, multiflora, milliflora, floribunda, and ground cover types.
Learn more about the distinctions between these types here.
There are 35 known species of petunia, and virtually all of the ones you might grow as a home gardener are hybrids. The splashy bloomers are native to South America.
In the early 1500s, when Spanish explorers found the low-growing white-flowered type in South America, they didn’t find it all that appealing, and so went about their merry way after naming it
Read more on gardenerspath.com