Simple container designs can be both beautiful and elegant. One way to keep things simple when you’re designing containers is to stick with one flower. I love petunias, and use them a lot in my window boxes and containers.
Simple Container Designs with Petunias
Petunias are a versatile and fairly easy to grow annual flowers. You can grow them from seeds, but they are so inexpensive that it’s easy enough to buy some at the garden center.
There are plain petunias and the “Wave” brand petunias that promise cascades of flowers. All petunias will flow or cascade to some degrees. They prefer cooler temperatures than what our hot Virginia summers provide, but in semi shade, as my pots of petunias are on the front porch, they thrive.
They need rich, well-drained soil, plenty of sunshine and water, and that’s about it. You can pinch off the spent blossoms to encourage the plants to product more flowers. Pinching the stem ends will also encourage the plant to grow in a more rounded, bushy form.
My simple container designs with petunias use petunias in various color combinations ranging from a monochromatic (one color) look to alternating colors and patterns. I also combine petunias with other flowers.
Pink, purple and white petunias. Note that I’ve planted them in a plastic container which slips inside the decorative ceramic pot. This ensures that water drains out. During a heavy rainstorm, I can pull the pots out and let them drain directly into the soil.
Here I’ve grouped several pots of petunias for color and fragrance. The top pot was supposed to be all white, but the petunia had other ideas!
This window box combines a geranium with dark pink and white petunias. Hummingbirds love it.
Petunias are also great in hanging baskets. Many municipalities in cooler climates hang baskets of petunias along the main street. I’ll never forget a vacation in the Blue Ridge Mountains and watching the watering truck moving along the town streets in the early hours of the morning as the workers watered the enormous baskets of petunias hanging from the street lamps.
Petunias are rarely bothered by bugs or diseases. If they start turning brown and sulking, it’s probably too hot. Mulch, water, and wait. In the fall, they’ll probably come back for round two!
They will withstand a light autumn frost or cold temperatures, but a hard freeze will kill them. Until then, enjoy the light, lively fragrance of petunias and all the pretty colors available to you.
Happy gardening! KEEP GROWING!
Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.
