New this year from BALL are three varieties of Black Petunias. Apparently they got a lot of attention at the OFA show and one variety, Black Velvet, won the Greenhouse Grower’s Industry Choice Award.
Here are the new varieties Black Velvet (left) and Phantom:
And Pinstritpe:
All of these are supposed to have a more mounded growth habit similar to regular petunias. I think these will be better suited to container growing but they may also do well in the flower bed.
So what do you think of these new additions to the petunia market? Is this something that your customers will want and something that we definitely need to be growing?
We are trialing these this fall. I think they will be pretty good for fall color and Halloween flower bed and container patio decorations. We are trialing them in both gallon and #10 deco pots.
My personal opinion is that they are better suited as accent color to combination planters and baskets. I think i can come up with some pretty cool color combinations with these petunias. I will have to see how well they do in the flower bed. From my experience most gardeners want bright, cheerful colors in their flower beds.
Here is a picture of the petunias we have growing now. We will plant some more next week.
