April’s garden plant of the month: Petunia

Plain, spotted, striped, with single or double flowers, and that profusion of beauty in all the colours of the rainbow through to almost black – the choice of petunias is overwhelming, although they sometimes bear a different name. Well-known series such as Surfinia, Crazytunia or Cascadia hint at their specialism with their name: long stems, unusual flower shapes or a cloud of hanging flowers.

• The plant is related to Nicotiana, the tobacco plant.

• The Petunia was given its name in 1789 by French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836). He drew his inspiration from what he knew: at the time, ‘pétun’ was the local word for tobacco.

• Artist Georgia O’Keeffe made her breakthrough in 1925 with a Petunia painting. She had planted purple and blue petunias next to her summer home on Lake George, and adored them so much that she recorded the flowers in sensual close-ups that became a sensation.

• Bees love the Petunia’s nectar, so that the plant brings lots of activity to the garden.

The Petunia originates from South America, where the plant grows in Brazil and Argentina. In the wild the plants often look much more rangy than the profusion of flowers that growers have managed to produce through crossbreeding. There are hundreds of hybrids available, and breeders keep producing new cultivars with new colours or shapes or which are – for example – better able to cope with rain.

• Generally speaking, the larger the plant you buy, the greater the chance that it will be a successful bloomer.

• It’s particularly important for Petunias offered in very small pot sizes to check that the plant is rooted and shows signs of growth. These small plants are usually grown from seed, the larger ones from cuttings.

• It’s important to keep the soil damp in order to prevent drooping.

• Remove yellowed leaves and wilted flowers from plants that have been on the shopfloor for a while, and ensure sufficient light in order to avoid stretching.

• As with all summer annuals, the earlier the Petunia finds a home for the summer, the better.

• Petunias like to be out of the wind in full sun.

• Keep the soil moist, water every day on sunny days, ensure drainage in pots and hanging baskets so that the roots don’t get too wet.

• Be sparing with plant food: it particularly encourages the production of leaves and not necessarily of flowers.

• Cut off wilted flowers stem and all.

• If the Petunia is past its peak, prune it back and the flowers will return in full.