Not so long ago, owners of private houses paid special attention to the design of their homes, forgetting about the garden plot surrounding the building. Now everything has changed, because landscape design plays a key role in the design of the site and everything that is on it. Of course, trees and shrubs, flower beds and flower beds help make the area more beautiful. Speaking about the latter, we can separately highlight petunia - a flower that belongs to the nightshade family and helps to transform the area. No one had heard of it for a long time, but breeders examined petunia, creating hybrid varieties based on it that are attractive with their appearance. How to properly use this plant by integrating it into the landscape design of your garden plot? About this in our material.
Temperature regime for petunia
No less important factor than light. Before the first shoots appear, keep the petunia at +23-25° C. After the sprouts appear, the temperature regime changes (at night +15° C, during the day +18-20° C). Harden the plant with daily ventilation (start with 10 minutes, gradually increasing the time).
“Adult” petunia is quite resistant to temperature fluctuations; some species can withstand temperatures from -5 to +40 degrees
DIY petunia flower beds made from PVC pipes
An original high flowerbed for petunia is made from PVC pipes of a suitable size. To create such a structure, holes are drilled in the pipes with parameters of 2-3 cm. Then the pipe is buried 1/3 of the height into the ground, and the substrate is placed inside.
Prepared seedlings are planted in the holes made or seeds are sown (depending on the time of year when the procedure is carried out). In the second case, the seed material is mixed with soil, which is then poured into the formed pipe. When the sprouts hatch, they will fill the nearby holes, growing into them. Using several of these pipes, you can form an unusual hedge or fence.
Watering petunias
You need to water petunia very carefully, observing the measure (excess moisture and drying out of the soil are harmful for petunia). Take clean and settled water.
Advice! When watering and fertilizing adult petunias, carry out all procedures in the evening in sunny weather. Then you won’t have to think about why petunia turns yellow. Its leaves may turn yellow due to sunburn when plant care activities are carried out in the hottest sun.
Water petunia in moderation, avoiding excessive moisture and drying out of the soil.
Hanging flowerpot with luxurious multi-colored petunias
The use of petunia in landscaping areas
You will get beautiful flower beds from petunias, even if you just plant them in the ground. This is especially true for beauty-starved city dwellers who decided to decorate a flowerbed in their dacha. But after admiring the randomly planted beautiful flowers for a couple of years, you begin to understand that a DIY petunia flowerbed will be much better if you think through its design a little.
A little coloring
Before you start planning your flower beds, it would be a good idea to learn a little about color combinations - after all, petunias come in many colors and also look great with other flowers. We do not suggest that you study coloristics completely - it is a whole science, but there are some points that you definitely need to pay attention to.
- If the area is small and you don’t want it to appear even smaller, avoid contrasts.
- If the flower bed consists of petunias of contrasting colors, color tension occurs, to smooth it out, use white, gray or silver.
- The combination of yellow and blue colors is a win-win, it always looks elegant and fresh.
- Pink and blue are a pleasant combination, not annoying, not boring.
- Blue and white or white and light blue are a great combination. If you plant such a flowerbed in the background of the plot, it will visually expand the space.
- White and green are classic, relaxing and perfect for a vacation spot.
- White color is universal. It “glows” in the dark; it is recommended to decorate evening rest areas with it.
- Another property of white color is that it will help if we “sinned” somewhere with colors, but noticed it too late. Simply add white until the result is satisfactory.
- Don't overdo it with bright colors. To make you feel comfortable, and not at an everyday carnival, their share in the color scheme should be no more than 1/5.
Location of flower beds
When you plan flower beds, flower beds, flower beds, remember that you cannot make a dozen of the most beautiful flower beds that do not match each other in one area. Believe me, it will look monstrous. Don't forget about harmony; the area should look like a single whole, and not like a patchwork quilt.
Inspection point
Flower beds and flower beds should be clearly visible from the porch of the house, from a place to relax, from a window. There is no point in making a beautiful flower bed in a place that is not visible from anywhere and is not visited by anyone.
In order for a person to have a good look at the flower garden, the sun must shine on his back. This needs to be taken into account. Perhaps you visit some parts of the garden more often in the morning, and others in the evening; in such places it is very important to place the flower bed correctly.
Location relative to cardinal directions
Correctly position the flower garden relative to the cardinal directions:
- Compositions of west-east orientation are best perceived.
- The southern flower garden always looks flat. To avoid this, it should either be completely bright or contain 1/6 - 1/5 red or orange flowers.
- The northern flower garden is almost always in the shade; it is not very suitable for petunias, but if there is no way out, fill it with plants with white, cream or blue flowers.
When setting up petunia beds, remember that they need a lot of light and protection from the wind.
Placement of the flower bed relative to other objects
Flower beds will look great in the following places:
- At the front entrance to the house;
- On both sides of the driveway, if there is one;
- On terraces, and narrow terraces can be completely turned into flower beds;
- On a large lawn, if it is not for sports purposes;
- Near benches, gazebos and other resting places, and from there they should be clearly visible;
- As a link between large landscape groups;
- Mini flower beds are appropriate on balconies, in hanging boxes outside the windows.
Companion plants
When choosing neighbors for petunias, you need to pay attention not only to the habit of companion plants, but also to their color. Orange marigolds, for example, will look great next to white, blue, and blue flowers. But you need to think carefully before planting them next to violet or purple ones. It will look beautiful, but do we need the feeling of a holiday every day for several months? Petunia can be safely combined with almost all decorative foliage plants that are suitable in size. The following will look great next to them:
- woolly chick;
- Chlorophytum crested;
- coleus;
- cineraria;
- cereals of suitable growth.
Of the flowering plants, the following plants are perfect if you choose the right colors:
- lobelia;
- white alyssum;
- marigold;
- begonia;
- verbena;
- gypsophila;
- Iberis;
- bell;
- phlox subulate;
- splint;
- Clarkia (more about which you can find out here).
It will be a little more difficult to place next to petunias in one flowerbed:
- irises;
- daylilies;
- hosts;
- garden yuccas;
- roses.
But with certain skills, knowledge, and just taste, you can make just such a flowerbed original and spectacular. It is very good to place petunia in a flower bed with bulbous plants; when the primroses fade, it will just grow and cover the empty spaces.
Continuous plantings
Petunia itself looks very attractive. A monoflower can be very small and consist of only plants of one color. It is better to plant large flower beds with multi-colored flowers, after carefully considering the color scheme. You can plant petunias of various colors in circles, diamonds, waves, and multi-colored rows. Floribunda is best suited for these purposes.
raised flower bed
Petunia will look great on raised terraces or inside specially constructed elevations made of stone, brick or wood. Here, depending on the height of the flowerbed and the desired effect, you can plant any variety as a monoculture or together with other plants.
Mini flowerbed
A mini-flower bed with petunias can be arranged in a hanging flowerpot, a special garden flowerpot, in boxes, in old shoes suspended by laces, in broken baby strollers. Here we can show our imagination to the fullest, while at the same time unloading an old closet or shed from unnecessary things. The main thing is that such wonderful flower beds fit into the overall concept of the site.
Old car tires filled with soil, buckets, baskets, and even an old bathtub can be used. Can you imagine what you can do with petunia from an old cart or a broken motorcycle with a sidecar!
This flower will feel good everywhere if you provide it with good watering, a sunny place, and water- and breathable soil.
Vertical gardening
Ampelous petunia looks very impressive in vertical gardening. You can simply hang pots of petunias along the sunny wall at different levels. You can build a structure made of wood or metal on which containers with flowers will be attached. Here, too, everything depends on your imagination and capabilities - the compositions can turn out simply fantastically beautiful.
It will be useful to read:
Growing large-flowered terry petunia This type of plant, later assigned to the genus Petunia, was first found in Uruguay in 1793. More were found later...
Frame of petunias
Multi-flowered, large-flowered or petunia floribunda can be used to frame any flower garden. It can be planted in a circle at some distance around a small tree with an openwork crown or framed with conifer plantings. On the border of the shady and light zones, you can plant hostas with petunias in such a way that each of the plants gets exactly the lighting that it requires.
Classic flowerbed
A classic flowerbed is one with clear geometric outlines and planted with plants that bloom at the same time. Petunia will decorate any room.
Petunia fertilizers
To ensure rich flowering of petunia, its leaves should be sprayed 2 times weekly with the following preparations:
Regular feeding of petunias begins when the flower grows 2-3 true leaves and continues throughout the growing season. An adult plant needs additional nutrition, which is applied 2-3 times a week.
Advice! To make petunia flowers more saturated in color, use fertilizer for petunias “Aquarin flower”. The product is used once every 10 days (2 tsp per 5 liters of water).
Petunia will be grateful to you for feeding
Care and care will provide you with beautiful, healthy petunia flowers
Wonderful petunias in the yard
Do-it-yourself vertical flowerbed made of chain-link for petunia
You can make a beautiful vertical flowerbed from a mesh. In addition to the chain-link mesh, prepare:
- flower container;
- flower seedlings;
- textile.
You can learn more about the process of creating such a flower bed from our article “Do-it-yourself vertical flower beds: popular ideas for creating garden decor”
It is necessary to make a cylindrical frame from the mesh, place fabric material inside it, place the selected pot down, and fill the structure with soil. Then the soil should be watered so that it settles a little and compact it around the perimeter of the pot. Next, the fabric is cut in different places, and seedlings are planted in the resulting “holes.” Now you just need to water the structure and watch the transformation of the flower garden.
You can see the process of creating such a flower garden in this video.
Pruning or how to pinch petunia?
For a beautiful, neat and lush shape, petunia is pinched by removing several small leaves from the top of the plant. But this trick does not work with ampelous types of flowers (stubborn ampelous petunias will stubbornly grow in length and branch weakly).
If you do everything correctly, the petunia seedlings will be ready to move to their permanent place of residence by mid-May (provided the weather is consistently warm). At the same time, plan a distance when planting multi-flowered forms of 10-15 cm between bushes, for large-flowered forms about 20-25 cm.
Beautiful lush bush of multi-colored petunias
Rich decoration of the facade of the house - many colorful petunia bushes
Delicate, graceful petunias create a beautiful contrast with the green lawn
How can you make a beautiful flower bed?
Option #1 – flower bed made from containers
Modern flower beds are not only carpet plantings; to create a vertical flower bed from petunias, you can purchase special containers of different sizes, mounted on a pole. Choose the varieties and colors you like - and a vertical flower bed will decorate your site. Both monochrome and polychrome ranges are good.
Material on creating multi-tiered and raised flower beds will also be useful:
Ampelous varieties of petunias are especially suitable for such compositions - in this case they will hang down and give a special charm to the flowerbed
Option #2 – flower bed made from a “living tower” mesh
A vertical petunia flowerbed can also be created using a grid. You will need a net, a pot, fabric and seedlings. We make a frame in the form of a cylinder from the mesh, place fabric inside the frame, place a pot of the required size down, and cover the structure with earth. We water the soil so that it settles, add more if necessary, compact it throughout the entire volume to the pot. Then we cut the fabric in several places and plant the plants in the gaps and at the top of the structure. Now all that remains is to water the “tower” and watch how it transforms into an amazing flower garden.
The idea that a flower bed is just a flower carpet is gradually becoming a thing of the past. Vertical flower beds that came to us from Europe allow you to create original compositions in areas of any size.
Option #3 – flower bed from window boxes
You can make a vertical flower bed using window boxes - for example, on the wall of a barn, arranging them in an interesting order. Both regular and ampelous petunia will grow in them, which will look good with pelargonium, verbena, lobelia and ivy.
To create such an interesting composition in country style, window boxes, an old work wheelbarrow and a cart were used. In containers, petunia and pelargonium form a wonderful combination
Option #4 – petunia bed in a gravel garden
Today, many people set up a gravel garden on their property - it’s not difficult, but it looks very interesting. Among the decorative cereals, lilies, a plot of petunias will also stand out effectively - clear some of the soil for the flowerbed, fence it with a plastic border and plant flowers - dark petunia - burgundy, purple - looks especially impressive against the background of gravel.
You can learn how to create a gravel garden yourself from the material:
Petunias are quite often used when you need to set up a rock garden or rock garden. They are perfect for “delicate” compositions
Option #5 – flower bed using paving slabs
You need to select a rectangular tile and lay it out in a certain order - you will get an original decorative border, framed by which you can plant any variety you like.
In this case, paving slabs are an interesting solution - you can create a beautiful flower bed without difficulty and without any special expenses.
