PETUNIAS - Our Most Popular Flower 
Petunias are our most popular flower 
and leads the list. It has so many uses and 
over such a large territory, besides being an 
ideal flower for the very small yard which 
is probably 90% of the gardens of today. 
They are very easy to grow once the seed 
has been started. The chief pitfall the 
amateur runs up against in growing Petun- 
jas is in the seed sowing; almost inveriably 
they bury the tiny seeds too deeply so that 
the sprouting seedlings cannot possibly fight 
their way to the surface. First the  soik 
should be a good loamy texture with fine 
leaf mould mixture for the top. Flower pots, 
the shallow type or fern pot, makes an 
ideal seed pan; place some drainage material 
in the bottom and fill to the top with the 
above soil and then press down and level 
Giant Romona Strain 
off, carefully sow seeds on top of this soil, 
using a little soil with the seeds so as to get a 
better distribution of the seeds, then give 
a fine sprinkling of sand over the seed, 
not over 1/16 inch at most, pressing this 
down firmly but carefully so that the seed 
will be in contact with the soil particles. 
This work should really be done a day 
before planting the seed when the soil can 
be well watered and the pot soaked with 
water, letting this stand over night, before 
sowing the seed. 
Then, after the seed is planted, place a 
pane of glass over the pot to prevent the 
loss of moisture, but watch carefully for too 
much condensation of water on the glass, 
which should be removed daily and the 
seed bed given ventilation. 
The pot should be in a place with about 
Giants of California 
Martha Washingion 
a 60 degree Far. temperature at night and 
exposed to the light; germination shows in 
about 10 days, when the seedlings should 
have light and ventilation; if the soil was 
properly watered at the beginning, it usually 
is not necessary to rewater during the germ- 
ination period. In too dry a place it will 
be best to protect the flower pot from too 
much drying out. 
When the seedlings show 3 or 4 leaves, 
transplant to a flat containing good soil 
with plenty of humas worked into it and 
Yor still better plants, it is well to trans- 
plant them again after they get a good 
root system started, placing them into 2 
or 3 inch pots. 
Petunias require plenty of sunshine. 
Set outdoors when it is warm and no frost. 
Of course, the bulk of the 
Petunia seed is now pro- 
duced in this country but 
‘before the war Germany 
was a leading producer and 
of late years, Japan also has 
been a prominent grower, 
especially in the double 
flowered type. 
Actually, there are less 
than 100 good varieties cov- 
ering all the classes that 
are grown today altho one 
will find many different 
names in various catalogs 
but even 50 varieties covers the needs of 
flower growers and most of the larger 
Petunia seed growers do not have many 
more than this number. 
In the production of Petunia seed, all 
of the larger flowered types are hand pol- 
inated as well as hand harvested and you 
do not haye to stretch your imagination to 
realize what an undertaking it is to produce 
this type of seed in this country under the 
present labor conditions. It would not be 
surprising that in the near future most of 
the Petunia seed will be produced in Ger- 
many and Japan. 
Ail Petunias can be grouped under the 
following: 
Bedding Types; Intermediate Types; Large 
Fringed Type; Large Plain Edged Type; 
Giant Type and Double Flowered. 
Bedding Petunias 
This group is sub-divided into the 
dwarf compact bush type or nana 
compacta, those known as_ hybrida 
and the pendula or balcony Petunias, 
having stems that are more trailing. 
The nana compacta group are the 
ones best used for edgings, formal 
beds, pots and also where a dwarf 
compact bushy plant is wanted. The 
flower is medium in size, single and 
plain edged; they are very showy. 
The hybrida group is similiar as 
to the flower but grows taller, 18 
inches, and does well in large beds, 
porch boxes, urns, etc. They are 
grown very much by florists for the 
general trade. 
The balcony or pendula group dif- 
fers from the above in that their fol- 
jage is more spreading or trailing 
and thus are ideal for window boxes 
or pots. They can be grown in beds 
as well. As to height they are 
intermediate between the above two 
classes. 
The colors are white, blues, violet 
shades from pink to crimson. 
Thus if you are selecting Petunias 
for your outdoor beds, you have the choice 
of these three types to select from. They all 
have medium sized, plain edged flowers, 
all are very free flowering and if you buy 
well bred seed, you will get deep pure 
colors as well as uniform type of plant. 
Buy Good Pe‘uma Seed 
Usually, when you buy the regular mixt- 
the seed has cross-polinated in the 
ures, 
Flufiy Ruffles 
fields and you can not expect as nice a 
strain as when you purchase a blend of 
straight varieties; the small difference in 
price, never off-sets the poorer strain. 
Intermediate Type 
These have a larger size flower or the 
edges are ruffled. They usually come in 
mixtures and are grown in pots. They also 
vary in height from 8 inches up to 16 inches. 
The Large Fringed Type 
These are 12-16 inches high with the 
growth varying from compact to spreading 
but all having large ruffled or fringed flow- 
ers. While they can be grown in the gard, 
en, their main use is in the greenhouse as 
pot plants. Their large heavy flowers do 
not stand up well in beds under heavy winds 
Grandiflora 
Single Fringed 
Shepherd's Doubie 
and rains. 
There are some 8-10 good varieties to 
select from, with yellow, white, velvety 
violet and in the mixtures under Fluffy 
Ruffles, the flowers are veined and in bicolor 
shades. 
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