I don't know if this is going to work. Maybe one of you has experience with taking cuttings from petunias. I bought a 6-pack of a patriotic mix of petunias for 2 pots in my front yard. I thought I counted 2 each red, white, and deep purple in the 6-pack. When I got home and went to transplant these into the 2 pots, I discovered I had 2 red, 3 white, and 1 deep purple. So I have an American flag pot of flowers and a Canadian flag pot of flowers (one has red, white, and blue, the other has red, white, and white).
I thought about buying more petunias in deep purple. Then just on a whim I decided to google whether or not you can propagate petunias by cuttings. Many people said they've had success with this. I followed some instructions a random redditor gave, using a cutting from my one deep purple petunia, and I'm eagerly waiting to see if I can root a stem in water. The instructions were to remove all blossoms and cut each leaf in half horizontally. They recommended rooting after dipping the end in a rooting hormone then in a seed starting medium, which I'm out of. So I'm trying this in water.
I will update you all if this works. If it does, I'm saving myself some money while having the pots of flowers I had hoped for. If it doesn't work, I'll have an American flag pot and a Canadian flag pot of flowers in my front yard. Let the neighbors wonder . . .
Have you successfully rooted petunias before?
It's been years since I've grown petunias, and I've never rooted them before, but they have self-seeded into the cracks on my front porch (we left the volunteers--I got a kick out of the pretty, tenacious flowers). You could Google how to purposely seed and plant them from your current plants. As for your current color groupings, I doubt that most people are paying that much attention. They are likely thinking "pretty flowers" and carrying on with their day. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteYou must have just the right climate for petunias to self-seed. I grow petunias in the same pots each year and I've never had a volunteer. I think maybe it's all of the rain we get in winter. The seeds probably rot here before they can sprout. I had saved petunia see and replanted before. The interesting thing is that you get something new with the second generation of seeds. I've gotten pink-ish purple to purple both with some white. Sometimes the white has large dots of purple on the petals. I've never gotten the what I thought I would get.
You're right on neighbors not noticing. It's just me.
How interesting about the next generation of petunias. I suppose that they have been so hybridized that they are unpredictable.
DeleteI would also notice my oddly-balanced flowers, if the colors were different. I tend to notice color and proportion in my own house (I was highly dissatisfied with my springtime front porch decor this year--I tried something different and it didn't "click") but generally, I don't pay a lot of attention to things like that with other people. Speaking of flowers, I'm hoping we stop getting frosty mornings so I can plant some next week. What a strange spring we have had.
I have never rooted petunias before, but it seems like it should work. Last year I cold started petunias with seeds and that worked well.
ReplyDelete