Note 9: Petunia Red Velour - a great performer

Some plants stand out.  Whether it’s for their beauty, rarity, or performance we all have our favourites and one that’s crept onto our list over the last few years has been the Petunia Red Velour.

Unlike some of its clump forming cousins Red Velour is a scrambler, a rambler, a plant with real ambitions for garden domination.  As if to prove a point, an overwintered specimen in the greenhouse tomato beds has reached over 4 feet across while the stock plants propagated last autumn are already enthusiastically flowering away in their small 9cm pots.  I’ve cut them back twice such is their vigour! Interestingly, it seems that these Petunias are rather more hardy than I was led to believe.  My mother has successfully overwintered the same Petunia outside in her Cotswold garden where they flowered well into late October.

I plant them every summer alongside the similarly rambling, mint scented Pelargonium tomentosum - the monster of the ‘pelly’ world.  Just these two plants can succesfully fill a large space and as I wrote in August of last year (see Red Velour and Rozanne - perfect partners) when the adventurous Petunia cascades over the edge of the troughs it mixes wonderfully with the RHS people’s favourite, Geranium ‘Rozanne’.

Planting this year has been somewhat delayed as I waited for the foliage of the Narcissi and tulips to die back, something they have seemed reluctant to do but with the last of the frosts now hopefully behind us and hot weather predicted for the next week or more I’ve cleared the troughs of old foliage and planted them up with the Petunia-pelly combination.  I’ve also included some purple Salvia ‘Nachtvlinder’.  These are of the shrubby woody type and appear to be continuously in flower.  My only concern is whether they’ll stand up to the bullying of Red Velour and the pelargonium.

STOP PRESS!  Just this week another Petunia has appeared in several plantings at The Chelsea Flower Show.  The Amazonas™ series may turn out to be a serious contender for the Petunia top spot.  The flowers have a purple eye fading out into a paler veined ring before turning to a chartreuse green on the outer rim.  They have a real vintage appeal, the veining giving almost the effect of an antique crackle glaze.  Are they everyone’s cup of tea?  We’re not sure.  But then Petunias haven’t been high on anyone's list for some years.  Maybe this is all about to change?  What do you think?