petunias

Yes, We Have The Bananas

  I have marveled this summer about the impact of modern petunias in hanging baskets, planters, and planting beds in communities in Ohio and elsewhere. When I talk to landscapers such as Gene Pouly in Orrville about these petunias, they agree that petunias are indeed a boon to these sites, but they almost always add that there can be so much more to urban plantings. So, here is one of Gene’s planters, with the range of additional plants he uses outside Smith Dairy in Orrville, Ohio.  

 

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Jim Chatfield

Petunias, Part Deux

Two weeks ago, I wrote a paean to petunias and how they liven up the street scene in Wooster Ohio. This week, I got a second dose while traversing the trade show floor at Cultivate’16, the summer festival of flowers and floricultural and all horticultural education put on by American Hort at the Columbus Convention Center.  There were of course many more attractions as well as petunias. Yet, this among many, all my life I have waited for flowers such as these. Below are just a few to whet your petunia palette with what is here now and with what is to come of new varieties.  Get thee to...

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Jim Chatfield

Petunias!

I walked through downtown Wooster, Ohio earlier today and was reminded once more of our debt to petunia breeders and petuniacal horticulturists of the past decade or two. Wow, planters and hanging baskets of incredible colors, shapes and sustained beauty throughout the summer. It’s bloomin’ crazy! The genus Petunia and its cousin the “mini-petunia” genus Calibrachoa rule. Both genera are native to South America and are in the Solanaceae (the nightshade family) with tell-tale funnel-like flowers: Some taxonomists even classify the two genera in the genus Petchoa...

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Authors
Jim Chatfield