Petunia hedging and trailing F1 Tidal Wave Silver & Cherry Red Seeds

Petunia, hedging and trailing F1 Tidal Wave Silver & Cherry Red, belongs to the group of trailing petunias and is an annual, herbaceous plant with a pronounced cascading habit. A single plant produces hundreds of flowers, in cascades mixing silver or cherry red flowers, forming a flowering bush with vigorous, 25 cm long stems. This impressive, rain-resistant plant is perfect for creating big, colourful waves in flowerbeds, pots and hanging baskets from which it overflows. It can also quickly cover the ground, fences and trellises. Sow under glass at room temperature.

Hybrid petunias are all derived from several plants originating from the warmer regions of South America. Trailing petunias resulted from a pure chance encounter when in 1989, a scientist noticed a particularly vigorous, wild petunia, covered with bright flowers growing on the edge of a field: Petunia inflata. Cross-breeding with other species and hybrids gave birth to trailing petunias, marketed under the trademark Surfinia. Petunia, hedging and trailing F1 Tidal Wave Silver & Cherry Red belongs to the Solanaceae family and is close to ornamental tobacco for example. Its foliage also contains alkaloids. This plant forms a rounded, almost shrub-like clump that reaches 60 cm in height and 40 cm in diameter in record time. The plant is in bloom from June to the first night frosts, provided that the wilted flowers are regularly removed and that fertilizer is regularly applied. Its cupped flowers are good-sized, measuring up to 6 cm in diameter and are sometimes silvery, sometimes cherry red with dark centres. The fairly pubescent, weather and disease resistant foliage features entire margins and a deep green hue.

Since more than a century, no other flowering annual has been the subject of such advanced selection by plant breeders. The results, such as demonstrated by the F1 Tidal Wave Silver & Cherry Red variety. are impressive since the splendour of their blooms and length of their flowering period rival those of pelargoniums. Plant them in large pots, in hanging baskets, on top of little walls, in any place where its flower-laden stems can trail. You can also plant them in large drifts in flowerbeds to cover the ground, punctuate borders with plants featuring grey foliage, such as mouse-ears or sagebrush or to decorate the foot of rosebushes.

Warning: seeds are best meant for very experienced gardeners who are used to sowing very fine seeds. These seeds are as fine as dust and are hardly visible to the naked eye.