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Petunias are amazingly beautiful flowers, you can see them in almost every garden. Who would refuse a green cloud strewn with multi-colored "butterflies". The variety of species and the richness of the color palette allows you to create a unique landscape design. There are bush, ampel and cascade varieties of petunias.
When determining bush - there are practically no errors, ampelous and cascading varieties can not always be distinguished. This is especially difficult for beginners to understand. We will try to give comprehensive answers to the question of what ampelous and cascading petunia are, what are the differences. But first, let us describe each of the types of "arguing" groups of plants.
Features of ampelous petunia
It is impossible to answer the question of how ampelous petunia differs from cascading petunia without a detailed description of the petunia species. This is not only the appearance, but also the features of growing, caring for petunias.
Description
The ampelous petunia has its own distinctive features in appearance:
- The length of succulent green shoots can be different, from 30 to 120 cm. During growth, the shoots fall down, and do not fall apart to the sides. Thanks to this, the plant can be given the desired shape. Therefore, it is grown in suspended containers.
- The size of soft leaves with slight pubescence depends on the age of the petunia: older ones are larger, and young ones are smaller.
- There are many flowers on the plant, they are located along the length of the entire shoot, in the axils. The shape of the flower resembles a bell.
- There are varieties with large flowers up to 10 cm in diameter, there are few of them on the plant. The multi-flowered species have more buds, but they are small in size (from 3 to 8 cm). On one shoot at the same time there can be flowers from 3 to 10 cm. On the same plant, buds can be of different sizes and shades.
- The color palette is rich, from pure white inflorescences to dark purple. Most often, the petals are bicolor, the inner part of the bell is more saturated in color.
When planted in one pots of plants of different colors, an amazingly beautiful flower arrangement is obtained, as in this photo.
On the features of the formation of a bush and obtaining cuttings for reproduction of petunias in the video:
How to grow ampelous petunia
Annual ampel petunias are grown as annual plants by sowing seeds for seedlings in late March, early April. Seedlings must dive. It is necessary to plant in a permanent place after the establishment of warm weather in late May, early June, depending on the climatic characteristics of the region.
For cultivation, you can use hanging pots, boxes.
But a separate place in the garden can be taken away, then the surface will be covered with a carpet of multi-colored buds.
The plant is demanding for watering and feeding, especially during the period of bud formation and flowering. But it does not tolerate stagnation of water in containers: the root system may die, and juicy shoots at the base also rot.
Ampel varieties are wonderful plants that can be used to decorate terraces, balconies, pillars. Dissolves the first buds at the end of June and pleases with its multicolor until the first frost.
Petunia cascading
Cascade petunia is a subspecies of ampelous. Although it has its own characteristics.
Description
- Cascading petunias are distinguished by elastic "well-fed" shoots, which can be up to 1.5 meters long. They do not break even in the wind. The green mass grows due to axillary shoots. Initially, they rise up, and after reaching a certain length, they hang.
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The plant resembles a ball with long hanging lashes when planted in a hanging planter.
- The buds are large, up to 5 cm, all flowers on the plant are of the same size.
How to properly grow cascading varieties of petunias, watch the video:
Landing features
Since the shoots of the cascading petunia have a tendency to grow rapidly, it can be planted in different ways:
- When grown on the ground, it needs to be assigned a separate flower bed, the plants scatter whips, forming a flowering meadow up to two meters in diameter.
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Supports in the form of pillars, fences are also suitable, you just need to direct the whips in the right direction. Then the support will be entwined on all sides. When planting, you need to maintain a distance of at least 40 cm, otherwise the plants will jam each other.
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If tubs or braids are used for growing plants, then they must be of a large volume, at least 5 liters. If you plan to plant 2-3 plants, you will need a capacity of up to 15 liters. Look at the photo, how amazing the flowers look in a wicker basket.
- You can grow petunia on a balcony, loggia, terrace.
The main thing is to follow the technology of growing and caring for the plant.
How to determine which petunia is in front of you
So, we examined each type of petunia separately, it remains now to figure out what is the difference.
The table contains the main indicators that will help you understand this issue.
Description | Ampelnaya | Cascade |
|---|---|---|
Escapes | Up to 120 cm | Up to 150 cm, grow strongly, can wrap around the support. |
Growth features | They grow immediately downward, not scattered to the sides. | First up, then down and to the sides. |
Color and size of buds | Flowers are large, up to 10 cm in diameter. The color variety is extensive. One plant can be of different sizes and colors. Often bicolor. | The flowers are large, the sizes on the plant are the same. Diverse palette of shades, but one shade. |
Growing features | From seed and cuttings | From seeds and cuttings. |
Priming | Fertile. | Fertile. |
Watering and feeding | Demanding to watering, feeding. | Demanding to watering, feeding |
Do I need to pinch | Not. | Yes, due to this, petunia grows faster. |
Where to plant | Hanging pots, spheres, tubs, braids. | Hanging pots, spheres, tubs, braids, in the garden, like a ground cover plant. |
Bloom | Continuously until frost. | Continuously until frost. |
If you carefully consider the table, then ampelous and cascading petunias have a lot in common. This is not surprising since the plants are close relatives. And now let's find out by what signs they can be distinguished:
- Shoots have different lengths, they grow unevenly. You can pinch them only in the cascade variety.
- In a plant with ampels, the shoots are not so juicy, flexible, hence the different strength.
- Cascading petunia can be used as a ground cover plant or to decorate supports, hedges due to its ability to curl. While ampelous look better in suspended compositions.
- Differences are also observed in the size of the buds. In the cascading variety, they are all the same size on the plant. On the ampelous there can be both large and small flowers at the same time. This difference also applies to colors. Ampel varieties can be multi-colored, while cascading monochromatic.
What is more beautiful
We found out how the ampelous view differs from the cascading one.But what plants to prefer for growing in the garden, each gardener decides individually. Look at the photo below, how our beautiful petunia decorates houses and yards.
The variety of varieties allows you to create a unique design from petunias: both in hanging pots and on the ground. Some experienced gardeners combine the two varieties of petunias or alternate them, coming up with different flower arrangements. The main thing is to follow the rules for growing and caring for petunias.
