Growing A Petunia Plant From Seed

Petunia Plants Starting Seeds – Caring For Petunias

If you are looking to add colour and brightness to your garden landscape, then growing Petunias will offer you lots of colour in your garden for a long time during the summer. The Petunia flowers can be used as borders or even suit container gardens. They come with attractive pastel colours that liven up the garden and do not need much care.

About Petunias

The Petunias are terrific blooming plants and they bloom in full during the summer. The blooms are wide trumpet shaped with branching foliage that feels sticky and hairy to touch. They can withstand quite a bit of heat, but not adverse or extreme heat. These are annual flowering plants and you can find its flowers in almost any colour. There are four different species of Petunias that vary from single to double blooms and from smooth to ruffled petals. The botanical name is Petunia X hybrid and the four species of Petunias are Multiflora Petunias, Grandiflora Petunias, Milliflora Petunias and Spreading Petunias.

Planting and Growing Petunia Seeds

The Petunia bloom throughout the summer and most of its varieties prefer to be grown in full sun. During the peak summer, it is better to grow them in partial shade. Petunias can be germinated from seed. Normally, a petunia plant starts to exist from a seed within 10 to 12 days from planting the seeds. You should provide adequate sunlight and moisture to the seeds, for the seeds to germinate. If starting the seeds early, it is ideal to germinate the seeds indoors in a warm place using bottom heat more than 25C no more than 27C. To grow the seeds all is needed is to sprinkle the seed to the soil surface. Sow the seeds on top of moist soil. Use sterile seed raising mix to germinate the seeds because potting mix can burn young seedlings. Pat the seeds lightly or press the seeds gently using a small wooden block of wood. It is important not to cover the seeds with soil but cover the seeds with a sheet of clear glass or plastic wrap once they are sown. Petunia seeds must have light to germinate. When the seeds show signs of germination, you can remove the covering off the seeds and move the seeds to warmer areas. If you have plans to plant the petunias outdoors, then you must wait till the cooler temperatures and frost are over as the petunia seedlings are not frost resistant. Keep the seedlings moist, using a fine misting bottle, at the same time fertilising the seedlings with half strength fertiliser solution. Pinching the seedling back when planting this will encourage more branches and this means more flowers. Petunias will thrive in moist rich soil, but do not like over wet soil. So, water the plant carefully. They will not tolerate dry periods for a long length of time.

Caring For Petunias

• Whether you choose to display petunias in the ground in pots or in hanging baskets, care should be given to keep them watered and fertilised, then the plant will repay you with a long season of showy blooms.
• Petunias need watering regularly, every three days because of their shallow root system.
• Petunia plants double and single varieties need rich ground to grow well, you can feed them with organic soluble fertilisers at least once a fortnight for good growth.
• It is important to deadhead petunias at the base of the faded flowers to encourage more flowers inturn this will stop the plant from making seed pods.