Container Gardening: Petunias

Take Another Look at Petunias!

I know that as flowers go, petunias don’t seem as exciting as say ornamental grasses or some of the other specialty plants that are popular right now. Petunias are a constant, everybody’s had them and they are everywhere. We’ve been there, done that! And yes, I’d say that’s all true but it’s true for very good reasons. Petunias, despite their ubiquity, are a showy plant. They bloom, they bloom and they bloom some more. And they smell good, too. Petunias come in a wide variety of colors and sizes and I would say for those reasons alone, these flowers are exciting. Every year, nurseries come up with new varieties of petunias. To try to name all the permutations of petunias available would be impossible which is a testament to just how exciting these flowers still are. I think rather than dismiss petunias as common, the idea is to think about using petunias in a different way.

One of my favorites is the Wave Series. There are now 5 different Wave series, the Wave, Tidal Wave, Shock Wave, Double Wave and Easy Wave. The three I am most familiar with are the Wave, Tidal Wave and Easy Wave. The difference in these three is in the height. The Wave is low growing (4-6”) while the Tidal Wave is a more upright variety (16-22”). The Easy Wave falls in the middle (6-10”). They all have a spreading habit which makes all of them ideal for containers. In the It’s a Grand Old Flag design, I have one of each which adds to the interest of the grouping.

Waves also make excellent groundcover. If you have a large area to cover Waves are the way to go. A few plants will cover a large area. After the first time planting Waves in a flower bed, I had to scale back plantings because the plants did so well. I had problems with them taking over. One of my favorite things to do with Waves is to plant upright plants of a contrasting color that poke through the spreading Waves. The effect is spectacular. I have used medium height snapdragons or upright petunias in conjunction with Waves with great success.

As for the hundreds of other petunia varieties which fall into categories based on flower-size, they also make excellent choices for container gardening. For myself I have noticed a shift away from making the petunia the center attraction in a container and giving it a supporting role. I have been very pleased with the results. One of my favorites is the milliflora varieties which are the smallest flowers. I like to plant it with other mounding type plants like this:

Petunias are also good as filler plants in more complex container designs and when using specialty foliage plants. Because of the variety of colors, sizes and heights, I can almost always find a petunia variety to complement my design.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be showing more designs that use petunias. They really are a beautiful and versatile annual. When you head out to the nurseries and garden centers this spring, give petunias another look. Think of how they can complement plants rather than taking front and center as they have in years gone by. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that petunias really are new and exciting!