What are we going to talk about? But about what ... The main character is a petunia plant, planting and care. We’ll see the photo, admire it ... After all, it is a leader among the most popular garden flowers. How to grow a beautiful petunia? It is rich in its multicolor, harmoniously combined in plantings with other summer flowers. Petunia is a real decoration of our flower beds, balconies, summer cottages. The lush flowering of this bright plant continues throughout the season, but in addition to beauty, it is famous for the fact that it is easy to plant, grow.
Photo of a petunia, it looks great, even if there are other flowers on the flowerbed:
This beautiful garden flower has many varieties. Its color shades are diverse, and its shapes are bizarre. Most often, petunia is divided into two varieties - bush and ampelous. Often, we make out flower beds or plant it in the cache-pots. This variety is unpretentious, sown in early spring - March-April.
Ampelnaya is a floral "waterfall". It is more suitable for hanging or forming garden compositions. Windows, balconies, pergolas are also suitable for decoration with such plants. These varieties need to be sown before bush species, approximately - the beginning of February.
The correct seedlings of petunias, how to grow
Most varieties of petunias are quite unpretentious. Even if with the onset of heat (March-April) you sow seeds in the open ground, provide regular watering, it will grow and bloom. But if you want to get lush, groomed bushes, then you have to try a little, "conjure" over a small seed.
Ways to plant petunia seeds:
- The easiest option is to sow in a shallow container or box. Seeds fall asleep not dosed (by eye). The most important rule is not to dig.
- The use of peat tablets gives excellent results in growing seedlings - it is very convenient, practical. Soak each tablet beforehand, place one dragged seed there or 2-3 ordinary ones. Seedlings of petunia in peat tablets do not require subsequent diving. With this method of planting, the bushes (along with the tablets) are subsequently transplanted.
- Cassettes for seedlings are also convenient, growing with their help does not provide for picking seedlings. Thus, each seed is placed in an individual cell (20 or 50 ml), and after 20-30 days it is transplanted into a pot, where petunia can grow until the first flowers appear.
- Sowing seeds in the snow is also practiced. A layer of ordinary clean street snow is laid on top of the soil, and seeds are poured on top. When the snow melts, it is absorbed, automatically drawing seeds to the ground (to the required depth).
Whatever method is used for sowing, seedlings need the correct temperature regime (+ 23 ... - + 25 ° С), shelter with a film, timely watering.
Usually, petunia seeds are sown taking into account the variety group (the 20th of March) in order to get flowering bushes by the beginning of summer. If you want to see flowering earlier, then sowing is better to start in late January - early February.
For her, a nutritious, loose soil with good moisture-retaining properties is suitable. Strongly acid or alkaline soil mixtures should be avoided.
Against the background of the story about the details of growing petunias, it is still worth mentioning the possibility of acquiring ready-made seedlings. The cases are different: someone just does not have enough time to engage in this process, but I really want to have a fragrant flower.
For such cases, petunia seedlings are sold, which can be bought at the market, store, florist center, even an online store.
Petunia, care and cultivation
In the first time after sowing (the first 7-10 days), regular spraying with a weakly pink solution of potassium permanganate will not hinder the seeds. After this period, with the appearance of the first hatching sprouts, you can enter top dressing. At the very beginning, it is advisable to use non-root products - irrigation with mineral compounds. If the situation requires it, then 1 or 2 times you can apply a plant growth stimulator, such as "Epin-Extra."
Seedlings should be provided with sufficient moisture, but do not be too zealous, as excessive humidity provokes disease. If the sprouts are oversaturated with moisture, it is necessary to stop irrigation with water. At the same time, you need to moisten the soil only by watering along the walls of the tanks so that the water minimally contacts the plants.
When the sprouts get a pair of full sheets, start diving. To do this, seedlings are planted one bush in special containers or disposable 200 gram cups (very convenient). Glasses are filled with the same nutritious soil that was used for sowing. After planting, the bushes are watered, covered for 1-2 days with some non-woven material (for example, Spanbond).
In the first time after peeling, for petunia, moderate soil moisture, periodic loosening is important. If seedlings require top dressing, then it can be done 7-10 days after a dive (1 time per week).
Before planting petunia bushes at a permanent place of residence, take care of its hardening. To do this, pots with seedlings must be periodically taken out in the cold (but not in the cold), providing an influx of fresh air.
Planting petunias in open ground
This flower loves loamy fertile soils. If before planting in place of a flower bed to make compost or humus, then the petunia will bloom more actively and splendidly. Make sure that the place for plants is well lit by the sun. Most often, bushes planted around the 20th of April (in the Kuban), after the frosts are left behind.
For planting, seedlings need to be well watered so that it is convenient to remove from the pot. Together with a lump of soil to plant on a flower bed. The step between the bushes should be approximately 30-40 cm. Then the plants are watered again and mulched (the next day).
Subsequent care for petunia includes:
- regular watering
- loosening the soil
- getting rid of weeds.
However, the main factor is feeding with complex and organic fertilizers, which must be administered on day 8 after planting. Potassium supplements need to be done every 10 days. We advise you to continue them until August inclusive. You can also use organic fertilizers such as humus.
Registration of a summer cottage or yard with a petunia, photo
The richness of colors and varieties allows you to create incredible combinations of shades, various designs. Multicolor flower beds, flower cascades, fragments of trees equipped with flower beds, even car tires are a field of activity, a source of inspiration for a summer resident.
Petunia goes well with flowers that complement each other in flowerbed compositions (see the first photo). For these purposes, you need to choose the same non-capricious, sun-loving plants (for example, snapdragon, salvia, calendula, left-handed). When designing a summer cottage with petunias, one should not forget about sunny places, since in the shadow zones it simply will not be able to gain strength, fully bloom. Well-lit, slightly shaded areas are ideal for this plant.
Some design options:
- Vertical flower beds - an amazing sight, which is very simple to create in your country house. To do this, a frame is made of a rolled-up metal mesh, which is fixed from the inside with agrofilm. It turns out a kind of pillar, which is filled with soil. Holes are made in the holes of the mesh where petunia seedlings are placed. What follows is appropriate care for the flowers.
- Petunia trees look impressive. In order to make such a “tree”, you will need a welding machine, metal pipes of different diameters. First, a pipe is installed on the ground. Then, from thinner pipes, “branches” -ups are welded to it, which will hold flower pots. Pre-prepared pots are bent around with a dense wire (to obtain a shape). Then the ends of the wire are also welded, forming a stand for the pot. The trunk and branches of such a tree are painted green.
- Flower beds from boxes - look very beautiful under the windows of a country house or even on a fence, placed in a checkerboard pattern or as you like. There are no difficulties at all, you just need to get drawers. Boxes can be wooden, clay, with forged edging - it all depends on your imagination.
- Flowerbeds - this is the broadest field of action for a creative summer resident. They can be multi-tiered, round, square, in the form of a flower stream, even repeating any drawings. It doesn’t matter what size a summer cottage is - there is always a place for a petunia flower bed or a small flower rug.
- Flower cascades are created from ampelous varieties of petunias (hanging, with long stems). To obtain an excellent result, such a flower is enough to put in a cache-pot and hang it. Such compositions from hanging pots are one of the most popular methods of flower decoration of summer cottages.
Already in itself is an ampelous petunia decoration, how many pieces to plant in a cache-pot determines the size of a container, for example, 4-5 bushes with a diameter of 20-30 cm. With the onset of spring, shopping centers begin to sell 22 cm diameter pots in which 3 bushes are comfortably located .
Despite all the subtleties, nuances, it is not difficult to grow and plant a petunia - this is quite possible for any beginner grower. Attention to seedlings, appropriate care will bear fruit. If you at least once grow from a small seed a magnificent, fragrant beauty, then you will never refuse her presence at your dacha.
Do not forget to feed fertilizers on time, to water this amazing flower - it will delight you with its flowering until the cold weather.