Speckled petunias are a spectacular sight
Meet Starry Sky. It’s the first ever “speckled” petunia and I confess that, initially, it didn’t turn me on.
The base colour of the petals is a rich, yummy purple. But what makes them unusual is that they’re spattered all over with white.
Is this “speckling” — unique so far to petunia varieties — pleasing to the eye? Or a bit over the top? When introduced to Starry Sky a few weeks ago at Jeffery’s Greenhouses in Jordan Station, Niagara, I had my doubts. In fact, I secretly thought: “Yikes. How garish.”
Yet, after bringing a hanging basket home (and keeping it safe from Jack Frost in my own greenhouse until the weather improved), wow, I sure changed my tune.
That’s because, once the basket fills out with flowers, the effect of all that mottled colour becomes quite dazzling — like a zingy swath of fabric created by some hip Italian designer.
So this pot of Starry Sky will undoubtedly have pride of place on my deck this summer.
However, will such wild daubings appeal to other Canadian consumers?
“Of course, we hope so,” says grower Albert Grimm, who’s painstakingly nurtured the development of Starry Sky ever since a European breeder approached Jeffery’s with sample seeds three years ago.
“The challenge for us is always to produce enough uniformly sized plants that we can rely upon, without too much loss. We tried small quantities of this petunia last spring, which proved reliable and people liked them — so we decided to grow more this year.”
Working on Starry Sky actually delighted Grimm, because he loves the speckling effect himself. He tested a few samples in his own garden in St. Catharines, Ont., and found its performance “terrific.”
“The stems don’t get long and straggly like a lot of petunias. And the plant is self-cleaning, which means that you don’t have to keep picking off the dead flowers.”
But there’s a caveat: during a heat wave, expect the petals to turn more white than purple.
“In hot weather, in full sun, we’ve found that the purple will fade a bit,” he reports. “But it comes back when the weather cools down.”
Barbara Jeffery-Gibson, who’s in charge of marketing for Jeffery’s, has her fingers crossed for Starry Sky.
“Buyers nowadays are looking for novelty — and this flower is certainly different,” she says.
Her optimism stems from the knowledge that women like brighter colours than men, and — no surprise, here — they’re the ones who pick flowers for gardens.
Jeffery’s new petunia is on sale in hanging baskets or as individual potted plants, only at Home Depot stores. A few garden centres, like my own “local” — Little Tree in Fergus — have also started seeds and are stocking some.
Finally, if you have a penchant for offbeat examples of horticulture, be sure to drop by the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington this weekend. The attraction is a peculiar plant that gobbles up sheep.
I’m not kidding. Puya chilensis, which is native to the arid hillsides of Chile, has credentials worthy of a horror movie, because foraging animals get entangled in its sharp hooked spines. Then they die, decompose and provide nutrients for the plant. This scary oddity is in the limelight right now because it has just sent up a flower spike for the first time since 1986.
“The plant grows so slowly, it can take 20 years or more to flower,” explains Nick Kondrat, head of public relations.
No one knows how long the current spike will last, but everyone at the RBG is excited about its rare appearance. So go take a look before the tall stem with its little topknot collapses.
Puya chilensis is strutting its stuff in the Mediterranean Garden. Fortunately, no sheep are allowed in. soniaday.com