There are hundreds of flowers in the world, each of which is beautiful in its own way. Many owners of plots prefer the tender shy hybrid petunia, dear to the heart. She does not seek to compete with roses or lush dahlias, but her bright flowers, exuding a pleasant aroma, always cheer up. They decorate the flower beds all summer until the frost. Petunia is one of the few plants that can be grown in the backyard, on the balcony, and at home in a pot. This flower requires a minimum of attention, for which it generously gives its owners a whole firework of all kinds of colors and shades.
General information
Once petunias grew only in South America. They can still be found in the tropical forests of Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil. In the Land of Carnivals, their name means "tobacco". These plants are relatives, both belong to the Solanaceae family. Petunias came to Europe in the 18th century. They immediately fell in love with many people and soon became quite popular. Of course, then these charming foreigners did not yet have such a great variety of shapes and colors. Petunias pleased the eye mainly with pink-lilac and white colors, and their flowers were no more than 3 cm in diameter.
Thanks to the hard work of selectors, we now have hybrid petunias. Work on breeding new varieties is aimed not only at obtaining flowers of different colors, but also at changing the shape of the petals, flowering time, and resistance to adverse conditions.
Now you can buy hybrid ampel and bush petunias, with small, medium or large flowers, simple or double. These beauties can be of all colors and their most bizarre combinations. Hybrid yellow, dark purple, violet, salmon, and two-tone petunias are very popular.
Botanical description
In the homeland of petunias, many people believe that they are planted by wood elves. Little people use flowers as headdresses and turn them into musical instruments for the holidays. They say that at midnight you can hear their thin melodic chime. Indeed, the funnel-shaped petunia flowers are similar to the once fashionable gramophones, only very small.
In simple forms of petunias, corollas are formed by five fused very delicate petals. The tube of such "gramophones" can be long or short, narrow or wide. In the middle, one can easily see 4-5 fused stamens and paired anthers. Flowers "sit" on short pedicels. Each has a calyx with narrow and comparatively long sepals.
If you make a description of a hybrid petunia, then you shouldnotice that it is impossible to give a general description of the flowers of all varieties, they differ so much from one another. We only note the fact that the diameter of the corollas of breeding petunias can reach 30 cm, and the height of their thin stems ranges from 40 cm in bush to 1.2 meters in ampelous ones. In all varieties, the stem is densely covered with small, entire, sessile leaves. If you look closely, you can see that they are covered with very thin short hairs.
To the touch, the leaves of petunias are somewhat peculiar, different from other plants. When you touch them, it seems that they are smeared with something. The reason for such tactile sensations is that among the hairs there are not only simple, but also glandular forms. They secrete a specific secret that protects petunias from adverse environmental conditions.
These flowers have another interesting feature - insects pollinate them day and night. In the sunlight, petunias attract bugs and bees with their bright petals, and at night with a fragrance that intensifies many times in the evening.
Classification
There are a lot of varieties of hybrid petunias. It is impossible to choose any one, focusing only on the color of the petals. All petunias are divided into species that differ in some characteristic features that may become a priority for flower growers.
The shape of the petunia bush is:
- Ampel.
- Spruce.
- Cascading.
The shape of the flower is distinguished:
- Terry.
- Simple.
- Fringed.
By the nature of flowering there are petunias:
- Small-flowered.
- Large-flowered.
- Multi-flowered.
- Floribunda.
In one form, several characteristic features can be present at once, for example, ampelous small-flowered simple petunias or bushy large-flowered terry petunias. Many owners of plots and balconies choose the variety of petunia hybrid "fidelity". It impresses with unusually abundant flowering. On its lush, densely leafy stems, growing up to 50 cm long, more than a dozen salmon flowers with a diameter of 70 mm can bloom simultaneously. Flowering continues until autumn frosts.
To make the classification more convenient for practical use, petunias are grouped.
Ampelous
Plants of this group, like climbing species, have thin and flexible stems up to 2 meters long. It is these varieties that are grown in hanging pots or in tall park flowerpots. Ampelous petunias, as a rule, tolerate precipitation and temperature changes well. Only a strong wind does not suit them, as it damages thin stems. Therefore, it is desirable to place these varieties on the leeward side.
Especially popular variety of petunia hybrid ampel "lel". It impresses with its large (up to 90 mm in diameter) yellow flowers, densely located on falling stems. "Lel" blooms from the end of May until frost, decorating flowerpots and balconies with eye-catching yellow "foam".
Ampelous petunias include:
- Minitunia. The group is united by the fact that the flowers of its representatives are small (diameter 30-40 mm), but they have a very high resistance to adverse environmental conditions.
- Surfinia. These are spectacular ampelous petunias, the stems of which can reach 2 meters in length, and the flowering can be very plentiful. The flowers of the representatives of the group are medium in size, from 60 to 90 mm in diameter. An important feature of these petunias is that they reproduce only by cuttings.
- Supertunia. These petunias are very similar to surfinias. Professional flower growers singled them out as a separate group, as Japanese breeders developed these varieties.
- Calibrachoa. Some flower sellers present this plant as a type of ampelous petunia, although this is not entirely true. The differences are that the caliber has longer stems, woody at the base, and smaller flowers (the maximum diameter of the corolla is 30 mm).
Cascade petunias are positioned as a variety of ampelous ones. However, these are different groups. Cascading petunias grow upwards, and only as the stem lengthens do they become cascading. A subgroup of cascading petunias is called partitunia. They are distinguished by unusually lush flowering and a dense arrangement of flowers. Partitunias in hanging planters look extraordinarily impressive.
Shrub
These plants are suitable for growing in a flower bed, for creating flower beds, bordering flower beds and paths, for keeping a house on a windowsill. Depending on thevarieties, they can be from 30 to 70 cm high. It is among the bush petunias that there are beauties with the largest flowers:
- Grandiflora. In the Russian version, it sounds like a large-flowered hybrid petunia. All her representatives are charming. Corollas they can reach a diameter of 300 mm! The edges of the petals are smooth, corrugated, wavy, and their colors are very different. Since the flowers of these petunias are unusually large, there are few of them on the bush. Another minus of grandifloras is that they are big sissies, they are easily damaged by rain, wind, and other unfavorable "gifts" of the weather. In this group, I would like to highlight a series of petunia hybrid "Sophistry". A mixture of all kinds of shades of large flowers will delight you all summer if you choose this series for your site, as it includes many varieties. All these plants form lush bushes up to 40 cm high. The flowers are located on them very densely. The color of the petals is striking in unpredictability. So, “blackberry sophistry” is dark purple, “blue morn sophistry” is sky blue, “blackberry and lime sophistry” is distinguished by the fact that dark and light flowers bloom on the bush at the same time.
- Fringed. Perhaps these petunias are the most beautiful. They mainly have very large flowers with a diameter of more than 100 mm. The edges of their petals can be corrugated, wavy or with a jagged edge. They look somewhat "disheveled", which attracts admiring glances. Especially good hybrid fringed large-flowered petunias.
- Superbrissima. They have a very wide mouthlarge whisks. Their diameter can be 160 mm, and contrasting veins are often present in the colors of the petals.
- Frillitunias. These petunias are very similar to fringed, have large corollas (diameter up to 100 mm), heavily corrugated or
- petals. They need to be grown only in places protected from the vagaries of the weather, plus, provide careful care.
- Terry. These beauties do not have five petals, but much more, which makes them remotely similar to roses. Terry petunias are unusually elegant, suitable for growing in a house in a pot. They should be planted outdoors so that they do not suffer from adverse weather, because their resistance to all sorts of climatic surprises is extremely low.
- Floribunda. Many people combine this group with multiflora due to the fact that its representatives also delight the eye with very lush flowering. But in floribunda, unlike multiflora, the flowers are much larger, they can be up to 150 mm in diameter. They are planted, as a rule, in spacious areas where they look great. An example is the variety of petunia hybrid "lagoon". It is distinguished by a very lush bush and large (up to 150 mm in diameter) flowers of various colors.
For hanging pots and flower beds
Many bush petunias, whose stems reach a height of 50-70 cm, are also planted in hanging pots. One of the varieties of hybrid ampel petunia "bewitching waterfall" that is very popular with flower growers. She will give a mixture of various shades of flowers to her owners. This petunia can be planted in pots and flower beds. Her stemsgrow up to 70 cm. They form a lot of flowers with a diameter of up to 60 mm. This variety tolerates rain, drought, wind well, blooms from May until frost.
Groups of universal petunias:
- Milliflora. In Russian, these are small-flowered petunias. Their advantage is very abundant flowering and high resistance to weather conditions.
- Multiflora. In our opinion, these are multi-flowered hybrid petunias. The mixture of colors of its flowers is infinitely diverse. In addition, justifying their name, the representatives of the group have an unusually lush flowering. They are not capricious, tolerate all weather conditions well, bloom early.
- Pikoti. These beauties stand out among others with a white border around the edge of the petals.
Features of reproduction
Having decided on the type of flower you want to have in your garden, you can buy seeds and start sowing them. Note that some petunias are propagated by cuttings. Such plants (if they are planted on the site for the first time) must be purchased in specialized stores in the form of seedlings. Most petunias are propagated by seeds. We will talk about this method.
Hybrid petunias, unlike simple ones, are best grown from seedlings. They are practically not sown in open ground, although some species can self-sow in the fall or during the summer as the fruits ripen. As a result, in the spring, plants may sprout on the site, the flowering of which will be much poorer than that of the original specimens.
Petunia seeds are very small. To make it more convenient to work with them, they are mixed with sand or earth when sowing. Now many manufacturers enclose plant seeds in a kind of shell of nutrients. This option is optimal. Soaking petunia seeds before sowing is not necessary.
It is important to provide suitable soil for future seedlings. This is especially true for capricious frillitunia, grandiflora, floribunda, fringed and large-flowered species. In the "wrong" soil, they will develop poorly, they will not give the expected flowering.
For all hybrid petunias, the mixture of components that make up the soil should be as follows: humus, sand, soddy soil, peat in a ratio of 2:1:2:2. Some also add vermiculite or perlite.
The process of growing seedlings
Determine the timing of sowing. For each region they are different and depend only on climatic conditions. Petunias can be transplanted outdoors when there are definitely no return frosts.
The seeds of these flowers germinate quickly (within a week), the sprouts develop actively, especially their root system. Therefore, in cases where it is not planned to keep petunias at home in pots, seeds should be sown no earlier than 60-65 days before planting in a flower bed.
If the plants in containers have time to bloom by then, it's okay, the main thing is that their roots have enough soil in a temporary container. If the petunia seedling has time to become a fully formed plant with powerful long stems andnumerous buds, it will be difficult to transplant. Therefore, it is not worth rushing with sowing. Another disadvantage in the early start of work is that young plants need a lot of light. When seedlings germinate in January - early February, they will need additional lighting.
Hybrid petunia seeds can be planted quickly and without any hassle. To do this, you need to take a spacious container with drainage holes, fill it with prepared soil, moisten it, pour seeds on top and lightly press them to the ground with your fingers. With this method, after about three weeks, you will have to deal with the picking of the grown seedlings, transplanting them into separate containers. Since the petunia is a flower that does not tolerate root damage, the method described above is not very good. When picking, some part of the seedlings inevitably dies.
It is better to spend more time when sowing, immediately placing 1-2 seeds in separate containers. It is convenient to do this with a toothpick, the tip of which is dipped in water. With this method of planting, seedling picking is not needed.
In both cases, the container with the sown seeds should be covered with glass or polyethylene and placed on a bright, warm windowsill in a room where the air temperature is kept at +20 to +23 degrees. After germination, it is desirable to reduce the temperature to +18 degrees.
Glass and film must be lifted daily to allow access to fresh air. Otherwise, mold may appear on the ground. If this happens, you need to carefully irrigate with a solution of potassium permanganate.
Seedling careclassical. They require sunlight, moderate warmth and water. Watering is carried out as the soil dries in containers. For better development of seedlings, it can be regularly fed with one of the liquid mineral fertilizers for flowers, diluting it according to the attached instructions. Feed seedlings begin at the age of 3-4 weeks. If the sprouts begin to stretch strongly, and this is not a feature of the variety, you can pinch their tops.
Caring for outdoor petunias
The place in the garden for these plants should be sunny. Light penumbra is also suitable, but at least a few hours a day, the sun's rays should fall on the plants. The soil for hybrid petunias should be loamy, breathable. It is advisable to add compost or humus to it in advance.
Seedlings before planting in a flower bed need a week, and preferably two, to harden. To this end, containers with sprouts are taken out to fresh air every day. Start the hardening process from one hour, gradually increasing the time. Landing in open ground is desirable in the late afternoon.
Water petunias should be moderate. They do not like either stagnant moisture or drying out of the soil. After heavy rain and watering, the ground between the bushes must be carefully loosened. For more lush flowering in the open field, petunias continue to be fed. Do this no more than 2-3 times a month. Usually they use nitrophoska, Mortar, humic fertilizers.
Diseases and pests
Hybrid Petunia, like the simple one, gets sick only when the rules of care are violated. Planting in heavy soils, in wetlands, in dense shade, as well as unreasonably abundant watering, contribute to root decay and the development of various fungal diseases. The main ones are black leg, late blight, gray rot, brown spot, powdery mildew.
Preparations for the fight against fungal diseases: "Skor", "Topaz", "Maxim", "Ordan", but practice shows that most fungal diseases are not treated. Petunias on which gray rot, black leg, late blight are noticed must be removed in order to avoid infection of other specimens. The place where they grew should be treated with a preparation containing copper.
Among the petunia pests, slugs, thrips, spider mites, aphids and whiteflies should be distinguished (lays eggs on leaf plates). Aphids are especially annoying petunias. You can fight it with folk methods (spraying with soapy water, acidic liquids), but experience shows that the best result is observed when plants are treated with insecticides "Aktara", "Decis", "Confidor" and their analogues.
