Peculiar Petunias

I've been experimenting with various plants in the planter boxes on the deck the past few years, ever since I discovered the moose and deer won't eat Marigolds. This summer I filled them with Geraniums. They were very pretty, though they didn't thrive as well as other plants I've had in the boxes, so I probably won't be doing them again.  I've found moose won't eat Geraniums, Dwarf Dahlias, or Petunias either. I tried the Petunias last year, and they did very very well. I think I will go with them next year . Which brings me to today's post.

After planting the Geraniums last May, weeds started sprouting in the boxes. I decided to let them grow, out of curiosity, and in the end I allowed them to co-habit with the Geraniums.

Blood red with bright yellow stripes

They turned out to be what I call volunteer Petunias. Plants that sprouted from the seeds made by last years Petunias.

Burgundy with smaller yellow stripes

They were so pretty and made up for the apathy of the Geraniums. They were highly unusual too. Besides the unusual stripes, several of the plants had more than one color of flower on them.

This one was my favorite.

A lot of the plants we buy to put in our yards are hybrids. This is a perfect example of why hybrids aren't the best to save seed from to plant the next year if you want the same thing, because they can be unstable.

Wow! Just wow!

In other words, the genetic make up of the seeds produced by hybrid plants will not necessarily produce plants like the parent.

So pretty

Thus is the case with my Petunias. The seeds from last years hybrids have produced some very unusual flower colors. I took pics before they all got frozen.

This one was blooming on the same plant as the darker Wow up above.

This one, though, is the most unusual. It's a mauve color with deep fuchsia colored veins. I've never seen a Petunia like this before.

Peculiar

There was one other that I didn't get pics of that was downright weird. The flowers were a dark mauve color with very pointed petals. They looked like stars. Unfortunately, the first frost did it in before I took these pics.

I'm hoping some more sprout next year. I am interested in what the flowers will look like.

I got lots of knitting done over the weekend. I bound off 4 projects! Pics after it's all been blocked.

Live long and prosper. \\//