Tiny Petunias

TINY PETUNIAS
Petunias are ubiquitous, but not in my garden. For some reason, I have never warmed up to them, even though I seem to be in a distinct minority among gardeners. Maybe my antipathy stems from the fact that the delicate blooms ball up and turn brown when it rains. Maybe it’s because petunias require regular feeding and pinching to look their best. Whatever the reason, I find it very easy to pass them by as I stalk the garden centers looking for interesting plants.
I used to feel the same way about the petunia’s fashionable relative, calibrachoa. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps the best known of its trade names–Million Bells and Super Bells–may be more familiar. No matter what they are called, anyone who has visited a garden center in the last ten years has seen calibrachoa. The flowers, which are only about 1 inch wide, look like miniature petunias and the plants have either a mounding or a trailing habit. Calibrachoa x hybrida, which is the proper Latin name of these specimens, come in an array of bright, pleasing colors. The plants are especially well adapted to container gardening and bloom reliably and repeatedly from spring through frost.
This spring, a horticultural wholesaler sent me several calibrachoa plants to try. Since they were free and I had pots to fill, I planted them and set them in a sunny spot. They began leaping out of the pot within a week, producing a riot of colorful blooms and are still going strong ten weeks later. During that time, I have done nothing other than watering and inserting a time-release plant food spike in the soil. Despite my earlier antipathy, I can now say that I love my calibrachoa. They make me feel happy every time I see them and I am strongly tempted to break down and actually buy some. Calibrachoa, like its relative, petunia, is a member of the Solanaceae or nightshade family. A native of South America, it was introduced to Europe about 200 years ago. Petunia made it to the big time, but the smaller calibrachoa languished in semi-obscurity until a white knight, in the form of the Japanese mega-distiller, Suntory, gave it a make-over and prepared it for its international close-up.
Suntory has been in business since 1899, when its founder, Shinjiro Torii began producing wine in his store in Osaka. The enterprise prospered and in 1929 introduced Japan’s first whiskey. Suntory’s distilled spirits and wine businesses grew exponentially in the twentieth century, and the company eventually branched out into pharmaceuticals and horticulture. In the late 1980’s, Suntory introduced both an improved petunia, ‘Surfinia’, and the hybrid calibrachoa. American-based companies like Jackson & Perkins and Proven Winners began marketing the hybrids in the early 1990’s and they took off with consumers. Now they are everywhere, sold under many different names. As is the current trend, marketers introduce a series of calibrachoa under a single trademarked name, like “Celebration”. Within each series are plants with flowers of various colors, so you might buy Super Bells ‘Coral’ or Million Bells ‘Yellow’. The selection of series and colors available at your favorite retailer depends on which wholesalers and marketing companies supply that retailer. Current calibrachoa series names include Calli, Celebration, Colorburst, Liricashowers, Million Bells, Super Bells, Mini Famous, Spring Fling, Starlette, Sunshine, Sweet Bells, Sweetheart and Catwalk.
I suspect that most people aren’t terribly fussy about which series they buy, but chose the colors they like best.
To help consumers chose among the many available varieties, Penn State did calibrachoa variety trials from 2001-2003. The results are available at http://dauphin.extension.psu.edu/Horticulture/Calibrachoa.pdf. New series have come on the market since the trials were concluded, but at least the results provide some guidance.
All calibrachoa hybrids like the same conditions: sunny locations, good soil and frequent feeding. Like other members of the petunia clan, they close up at night and on dark days. However, as long as they are watered regularly, they do not flinch in hot sticky weather.
Suntory continues to develop plants, with a special emphasis on introducing blue coloring to flowers that do not naturally bloom in that shade. In 1997, the company introduced ‘Moondust’, touted as the first blue-toned carnation. By a complicated genetic manipulation process involving the introduction of a gene for blue pigmentation from a pansy into the genetic make-up of a rose, Suntory also developed what they claim is the world’s first rose with “nearly 100% blue pigment in the petals.” Introduced in 2009 and dubbed ‘Applause’, the rose was designed for the cut flower trade rather than the home gardening market. The picture accompanying Suntory’s press release makes the rose look bluish-purple, but that may owe more to the quality of the color reproduction than the true appearance of ‘Applause’.
Flower lovers of the world will have to decide whether they really love blue carnations and roses, but they have already voted in favor of the calibrachoa. It has come a long way from its obscure South American origins.