In part one we explored a brief history of how the petunia emigrated from Argentina to Britain, but I was curious about the life of John (James) Tweedie, and I was interested to find out when T&M first started selling petunias. Luckily I had two people who were willing to give me some answers. Firstly I am indebted to Mr Graham Hardy the Serials Librarian at The Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh. When researching the early introduction of petunia seeds sent from Argentina by Tweedie, some of the reports called him John and some were calling him James, as I was worried about getting my facts wrong, I emailed Mr Hardy my query and he very kindly sent me some fascinating links including one that is an online copy of Mr Tweedie’s obituary. This document highlights what an important and extraordinary man he was. Not only was he a professional landscape gardener and held the title of Foreman in Dalkeith Gardens, but he also held the title at The Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens too. He didn’t travel to South America until he was fifty and he died there aged eighty seven after some remarkable plant hunting adventures. It wasn’t only the petunia seeds he sent back to Scotland, as gardeners we have a lot to thank him for.

Petunia ‘Night Sky’ and Petunia ‘Cremissimo’

I have copied the link in for you if you wish to learn more about him, with kind permission from Mr Hardy and the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh “You can read the obituary for John Tweedie published in the Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 28 June 1862, here biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32988793. With credit to the Biodiversity Heritage Library. BHL is a US initiative started around 2005, which provides a platform for digital versions of biological books held in US and UK libraries, it is a great thing to have access to.”**

There is also this link for his species now known as Petunia integrifolia (Hooker) Schinz & Thell. You can see herbarium specimens of this species collected by John Tweedie on RBGE’s online herbarium catalogue here: elmer.rbge.org.uk/bgbase/vherb/bgbasevherb.php. again printed with kind permission from Mr Hardy and The Royal Botanical Gardens.**

And by no means least a big Thank You to Anne who was working the Petunia Parade Facebook posts who kindly answered my other question When did Thompson and Morgan first sell petunias? “There were no petunias in the 1914 catalogue, but in 1915 there were quite a few. The most popular petunia sold is ‘Priscilla’ and she is twenty years old this year and is as popular as ever.”

Petunia ‘Purple Rocket’ and Petunia Crazytunia ‘Green With Envy’

The story isn’t over yet, new breeding still continues, a quick look through the Two Thousand and Sixteen Spring Catalogue from T&M shows us the introduction of eleven new Petunias. My favourites are ‘Night Sky’, ‘Cremissimo’, and ‘Anna’. So maybe it’s about time to actually take a leaf out of The Dixons Men’s Garden Club who are based in Dixon, Illinois, America and put our Petunias on Parade.

Each year they plant thousands of pink petunias along at least two miles of their main roads into Dixon. If that’s not enough Ludington residents plant thirty thousand red, white and blue petunias at their marina and downtown boulevards, and they credit Charlesvox in Michigan for the idea, as their residents plant up five miles of US 31 with these flowers each year.

Petunia ‘Stars and Stripes Mixed’

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could get just one city, town, village or hamlet in Britain to start a real Petunia Parade too?

*Mendle’s Law quoted from Wikipedia.

** Quoted from Grahah Hardy. RBGE

Amanda Davies

My name is Amanda and I live in Pembrokeshire with my fiancé and our garden is approximately 116 meters square. I want to share with you my love for gardening and the reasons behind it, from the good to the bad and ugly. I want to do this for my own personal pleasure. If you would like to take the journey with me then please read my blogs and share with me your gardening stories.