Petunia Hanging Basket

I love petunias, they are so bright and colourful and make beautiful displays in hanging baskets and containers.  I use mainly baskets and containers in my garden which are displayed on my decking at the front of my house during the summer.

This year I wanted to do something different with the petunias.  Our local football team AFC Bournemouth had been promoted to the Premier League so I decided to do something in their honour.  I have a stand with three baskets, small, medium and large which stands by my front door.  The Bournemouth colours are black and red so I bought some red double petunias and was able to find some single black petunias which looked just like velvet.  I planted them and stood back to await the results.  Bournemouth Football club sent me a digital photo of their emblem which I enlarged and put in the window at the side of the petunias.  It caused interest amongst neighbours especially those who were supporters including two of my grandchildren.  As you see on the photo I had a hanging basket with the same petunias in just to the right of the stand and they ended up in growing together.

AFCBournemouthcolours

I also grew some very different petunias, a cerise colour with very light leaves which really showed up the colour of the flower and lasted for most of the summer.  Another idea I had was to grow red, white and blue petunias for the fence baskets which worked out very well, and also a red, white and blue triple hanging basket.  Red in the top, white in the middle and blue in the bottom basket.

I have also had success with growing petunias in hanging bags but have learnt from previous disappointments that when I have planted up the bag is to leave it lying flat until they are settled. This seemed to work much better for me this year.   I really like the new kind of petunia which graduates from white in the centre to a deeper colour middle to top of the flower.   A couple of years ago I tried some climbing petunias – Petunia ‘Tidal Wave’ – which were very successful.

Petunia in hanging bag

Of course it hasn`t all been success, I got up one morning only to find that the dripper from the watering system had fallen out of one of the baskets and the strong winds we had dried it out completely.   Although I tried very hard to save it I wasn`t able to, and another basket this happened to, I had to cut them right back, soaked it in a bucket of water and in about a month they were all flowering again, so at 77 I still have to ‘live and learn`!

This year I bought some petunias called Petunia ‘Peach Sundae’ they were beautiful shades of yellow, orange and peach.  They lasted throughout the whole summer no matter what the weather did, including some torrential rain and hailstones but after a few days they all just bounced back again.

Petunia ‘Peach Sundae’

I am now wondering which petunias I shall plant for this coming year?  Roll on summer I say.

Jean Willis

I started gardening 65 years ago on my Dad’s allotment and now live in Bournemouth, where spend a lot of time gardening since retiring. In 2012 I won the Gold Award for Bournemouth in Bloom Container Garden. I am a member of Thompson & Morgan’s customer trial panel.