Striped Petunias

I started the day with a morning presentation at the Winter Workshop for the Wisconsin Nursery & Landscape Association (WNLA). Their meeting was in Oconomowoc, WI and my presentation was on some of the new and exciting annuals, perennials and woody plants that are out there. I saw some of our volunteers, Christy (UWEX) and many nursery friends. Big John and Larry H. held down the fort and upon my return, I saw Dr. Gredler and Gary B. working on our garbage bins (repair and painting). John and Larry worked on retrieving some lights, pruning and other odds and ends. Gene was sanding another bench for re-staining and Jim, Dave and Vern were continuing work on some carpentry projects. Dick H. was helping out as well and Ron P. continues to repair some of our Holiday Light Show (HLS) strands prior to storage. I'm sure I missed a couple of folks but was happy to see a good sized group of volunteers during this "warming trend." We hope more of our HLS items will be unfrozen and retrievable in the imminent future! I spent the remainder of the day on meetings and the continuation of my spring seed ordering.

I'm not convinced that there is an official definition for a "striped petunia" but I'll use that term to refer to the type of varieties represented in this blog. Typically featuring two prominent colors with a prominent "star-shaped" center, these selections offers a strong visual "punch" and varieties have been selected with forms for the garden bed or trailing out of a container or basket. I'm a big fan of petunias for heat tolerance, heavy flowering and certainly the wide range of durable selections that are out there and being offered as plants and/or as seed. The striped petunia can augment a container arrangement and due to the bright coloration provided by multiple colors on the same bloom, they certainly do catch the eye. Included here are just a smattering of fun varieties like that of Petunia Crazytunia 'Knight Rider Improved' seen directly above.