February 20, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
393 
DOUBLE & SINGLE PETUNIAS. 
These are among the most showy and useful plants 
we possess, the double forms making admirable pot 
plants for the decoration of the conservatory, green¬ 
house, or window-sill, while the singles are simply 
invaluable for almost any purpose, and equally adapted 
for summer bedding, for window-boxes, hanging baskets, 
or as decorative pot plants in or out of doors. Few 
people, I imagine, are aware what capital town plants 
Petunias, especially the single kinds, are. A bed of 
these, grown from seed, is a mass of bright and varied 
colour the summer long in the heart of the smokiest 
town, and much more easily grown than Verbenas (as 
usually propagated from cuttings) or many things 
much more often seen. 
Let us take the double varieties first. These are 
usually propagated from cuttings, and the present is a 
very good time to take them if there is a gentle heat at 
command in which they may be struck. There are 
many fine-named varieties, and plants purchased and 
flowered one season, and kept in 5 in. or C in. pots in a 
greenhouse at the usual temperature, will probably be 
now furnished with a quantity of nice stubby side- 
shoots 2 ins. or 3 ins. long, which will make the best 
of cuttings. Take these off with a sharp knife close to 
the old wood, trim off the lower leaves, and insert them 
rather thickly in small pots half full of drainage, with 
a mixture of about two parts loam, one each of leaf- 
mould and cocoanut-fibre, and 
plenty of sharp sand over the 
crocks, and just a surfacing of 
clean fine sand on the top. Six 
or eight cuttings in a 3^ in. or 
4 in. pot will be about the right 
number. Now water them in 
and place them on a gentle 
bottom heat in a propagating 
house or pit at 65° to 70°, or even 
on a shelf or stage in a stove or 
warm greenhouse will do. If 
properly looked after they will 
be rooted in two or three weeks, 
and when they have grown a 
little may be potted off singly. 
Use a mixture of two parts turfy 
loam, one of leaf-mould, and 
half a part of silver sand. Small 
60-sized pots (3 in.) for the 
stronger examples and “thumbs” 
for the smaller ones, will be suf¬ 
ficiently large for the present. 
Some growers insert the cut¬ 
tings singly in “thimbles,” the 
smallest pots made, and if the 
extra trouble is not objected to 
this is really the better plan, 
as the roots are very fine and 
delicate, and the “ potting off” 
process is by no means beneficial unless, perhaps, very 
skilfully done, and from the thimbles the plants can 
be shifted into 3 in. sizes without disturbing the roots. 
In either case, when placed in the larger size, the 
plants must be kept close in a rather warm house or 
frame for a week or so, and when established be grown 
on in a light position, with a rather free supply of 
moisture and a temperature of 60° or 65°. In a month 
or five weeks’ time they will be fit for the flowering- 
pots, which may be 6 ins. in diameter for the stronger 
plants and 5 ins. for the smaller ones, using still a good 
loamy soil with a small proportion of leaf-mould or 
well-decayed manure, and a little sand and charcoal. 
After the first few days admit a little air, the weather 
being now warmer, and gradually accustom the plants 
to rather free ventilation, increasing in quantity as the 
plants gain in strength, and approach the flowering point. 
Stake as required, and when the pots are getting filled 
with roots afford a moderate supply of liquid manure ; 
the plants will soon come into bloom, and continue in 
beauty for several weeks. Petunias are very partial to 
light and sunshine, and do not need any shading 
beyond the slightest protection from a very powerful 
sun ; they also dislike a damp or close atmosphere, at 
least during the later stages, and when in flower ; and 
as they are not subject to either thrips or red spider, 
there is no danger in maintaining a moderately dry 
state of the air about them. 
Good Double Varieties. 
A few really good double kinds are Madame Hengist, 
Tapageur, Labyrinth, Mrs. Elder, Ophelia, Le Grand 
Due, Miss Hender, Robert’s Gem, Mrs. Webb, 
Berenger, Triumph, and M. Buchner, the two last 
named being pure white. Some of the varieties have 
the petals beautifully fringed, which greatly adds to 
their appearance ; of these Madame Hengist is a very 
good example, and though this is now an old variety, 
it is still one of the very best when well grown ; its 
habit being remarkably neat and dwarf, and the flowers, 
which are extremely handsome, very freely produced. 
It is, moreover, very constant in colour, being of a 
rich crimson, slightly tinted with purple, and blotched 
and edged pure white. 
It is almost useless to describe the colours and 
markings of most double Petunias, for they vary 
so greatly with age, strengthy, or under the most 
slightly differing conditions that a description that 
would be quite correct in one season, or under 
certain conditions, might be totally wrong the next 
year, or under slightly different treatment. Most of 
them are, however, of various shades of rose, crimson, 
or purple, more or less blotched, striped, banded, 
shaded, or in some cases spotted with white, or a shade 
nearly approaching thereto. Selfs are scarce, and the 
old “Crimson King” is still one of the best and most 
constant of these ; but it may be noted that a variety 
which is entirely self-coloured one year may sport into 
all kinds of variegation the next season, and vice versa. 
The “Darlington” Glass Wall-Cover. 
New varieties of double-flowering Petunias are con¬ 
stantly being introduced, chiefly from the continent, 
and some of them have certainly remarkably fine 
blooms, at least at first, though they seem very often 
to deteriorate sadly after being propagated for a few 
years like many other things. The great fault of 
these continental varieties is the strong coarse habit 
too many of them possess, which of course quite spoils 
their appearance as specimens, however fine the blooms 
may be ; and after all I do not consider the huge ultra 
double cushion-like flowers that have been recently 
the fashion, are nearly so beautiful as a moderate sized 
neatly formed bloom. 
Double Petunias may also be raised from seed, and 
if this is sown now nice vigorous plants and well 
flowered may be produced, by ordinarily careful culti¬ 
vation, by July or August next. The seed is to be 
sown in gentle heat in precisely the same manner as 
will presently be described for the single varieties, 
pricked off once, and potted first into 3 in. pots and 
afterwards into 5 in. or 6 in. sizes to bloom, growing 
the plants, once they are fairly established, as previ¬ 
ously directed for plants from cuttings. Even if the 
seed is first-class, however—and it is folly to take 
trouble with any other—not more than about a third, 
at the outside, of the plants will produce double flowers. 
Still, a batch of seedlings is well worth growing, as a 
few really fine varieties will probably be obtained which 
may be preserved and propagated from, and it is very 
interesting to watch the plants successionally come into 
bloom. 
Single Petunias. 
Single Petunias are even more generally valuable 
than the doubles. They are sometimes grown from 
cuttings, and there are numbers of named kinds in 
commerce ; but as these almost invariably deteriorate 
sadly after a few years they are hardly worth troubling 
with, as seedlings are far more easily raised and much 
more successful than plants from cuttings. Not one 
single Petunia in a hundred—one might safely say in 
a thousand, even—possesses a constitution sufficiently 
constant and vigorous to bear propagating from cuttings 
for any length of time, though here and there one— 
like Mrs. W. Elder, one of the finest Petunias, in colour 
and constancy particularly, ever raised—may occur. 
A little good seed is better than any quantity of old 
plants, and by following this plan there is no trouble 
of wintering the stock. 
To produce good flowering plants in 5 in. or 6 in. 
pots by the month of June, seed should be sown at 
once, in a temperature of 60° to 65°, although it will 
germinate more slowly in a temperature a few degrees 
less than this ; but if only intended for bedding out 
purposes or to produce pot plants to come in later in the 
summer, some time in March will be soon enough, and a 
warm shelf in an ordinary greenhouse, with a sheet of 
glass over the pan or box, will be a sufficiently favour¬ 
able position. 
The seed being somew'hat fine, must be sown on a finely 
sifted surface of leaf-mould, with 
a layer of a rather rougher 
compost of loam, leaf-mould, and 
sand beneath, and free drainage. 
Only just cover the seed with a 
little fine sandy soil, and main¬ 
tain a moderate and even degree 
of moisture from the first. The 
seed will quickly germinate in a 
gentle heat, and when fairly up 
must be placed close to the light 
to prevent the plants becoming 
drawn, and moderately venti¬ 
lated also. As soon as they are 
strong en ough prick the seedlings 
off 1 in. or 2 ins. apart into 
other boxes or pots prepared in 
much the same w T ay as the seed- 
pans, but the surface should not 
be sifted; grow on near the glass 
in a genial atmosphere, and they 
will soon be fit for potting off 
singly into 60-sized pots. Keep 
close for a few days after this 
operation, then ventilate rather 
freely, and when established and 
strong harden off gradually and 
plant out of doors in any sunny 
position, or pot on for indoor use. 
Petunias will grow well in al¬ 
most any fairly good garden soil, but if this is at all 
poor it will be well to work in a moderate proportion 
of well decayed manure, or leaf-soil, when preparing 
the beds ; at the same time it is a mistake to make 
the ground too rich, for if this is done growth will 
be made at the expense of bloom. On the whole, a 
sound loamy staple fairly well enriched, suits Petunias 
best, but a soil of this description is by no means 
necessary. 
Seedlings vary greatly in colour and markings, so that 
it is no use depending on them where uniformity is 
required. In this case plants from cuttings must be 
employed, but Petunias are not nearly so well suited 
for carpet or ribbon bordering as for massing, or planting 
here and there in mixed borders, and in anything of 
this kind mixed seedlings are much the best. 
It is of great importance to obtain a good strain of 
seed, for indifferent Petunias are very unornamental, 
and a bad class of these flowers is far too common. 
Really good seed of the true grandiflora strain will, 
however, produce abundance of large well-shaped blooms, 
from 3 ins. to 4 ins. in diameter, and of many shades 
of rich crimson and purple, in many cases clearly and 
prettily blotched, striped, and edged with pure white. 
There will also be some blooms entirely ivhite, and 
also some very pretty pink and rose coloured varieties. 
The plants should be stopped once or twice in the early 
stages to induce a bushy or many stemmed growth. 
When planted in beds the shoots may be pegged down 
to the soil, and the points of over luxuriant growths 
should be taken out occasionally.— B. C. B. 
