PETUNIA FLOWER

PLANT DESCRIPTION

• Fruit / flower: Flower
• Colour: Colours range from white, red, pink, purple
• Flowering time: Throughout spring, summer into autumn
• Flower size:
• Fragrance: No distinct fragrance
• Foliage description: unimpressive, sticky leaves
• Foliage colour: green

Petunia is genus of 35 species of  flowering plants of South American origin, closely related to tobacco, cape gooseberries, tomatoes, deadly nightshades, potatoes and chili peppers; in the family Solanaceae. is great variety: single and double blooms, ruffled or smooth petals, striped, veined or solid colors, mounding and cascading habits and even some fragrance. Most of the petunias sold today are hybrids, developed for specific design purposes.

Petunias are usually carefree growers although they can get pummeled by rain. Even the newer varieties that say they don’t require deadheading will benefit from a pinching or shearing mid-season. When the branches start to get long and you can see where all the previous flowers were along the stem, it’s time to cut them back and refresh the plant.

The 2 oldest types of petunias are grandifloras and multifloras. Both are somewhat mounding. Grandiflora has larger flowers, but Multiflora holds up better in the rain. If you grew petunias a few decades ago, you will remember how the flowers turned to mush, when they got wet.