Petunias are the perfect way to brighten up your winter garden. With their vivid flowers in a kaleidoscopic range of colours, these annuals are a sure fire way of banishing those cold winter blues.
You may wonder at this, as most gardeners consider them to be summer annuals. In fact petunias can be grown all year round. Because they don’t like water of their flowers you must just know what type to plant. “Grandiflora” petunias have large flowers and are ideal for planting in autumn and winter in summer rainfall areas. “Multiflora” petunias have masses of smaller flowers and are better suited for plantings in spring and summer in the summer rainfall regions as the smaller flowering varieties are more tolerant of rainfall. The opposite obviously goes for the Western Cape.
They can survive the cold and do well if planted in late winter so that they have established themselves by the time spring’s warmth triggers flowering time. When planting Petunias, whether in containers, window boxes or beds, placing them along a north-facing wall is preferable, as it will trap a lot of heat and light. These are a prime growing position for petunias and will encourage them to flower throughout winter and spring.
