🌸 When to Plant Petunias

Petunias are workhorses of the summer garden — blooming nonstop from spring to frost with minimal fuss in sun or containers.

Recommended Varieties

Petunias fall into four types by flower size and growth habit — choose by where you’re planting.

• Grandiflora — the largest blooms, up to 5 inches across, in single or double forms on upright 12–15 inch mounds; showy but flowers less heavily and the blooms don’t hold up well in rainy weather (series include Supercascade, Ultra, and Falcon).
• Multiflora — smaller flowers but far more of them, on compact, weather-tough plants that recover better than grandifloras after rain (Celebrity, Carpet, and Primetime series).
• Milliflora — miniature plants with masses of 1- to 1½-inch flowers; the most compact type, best for edging and close-up containers (Fantasy series).
• Spreading / Wave — vigorous, low plants only 4–6 inches tall that spread 2–4 feet in a season, with excellent heat and drought tolerance (Wave series, introduced by Ball Seed in 1995).

For hanging baskets and window boxes, choose Spreading/Wave or double multifloras; for mass bedding, single multifloras; for edging and small pots, milliflora; for groundcover, Wave. Petunias want full sun and bloom spring through frost. Set out as transplants after frost danger passes and soil warms to about 60°F — not a succession crop.

Top Growing Tips

• Start indoors 10-12 weeks before last frost — tiny seeds need light to germinate
• Deadhead regularly or cut back hard mid-season to rejuvenate blooms
• Trailing wave types are spectacular in hanging baskets and window boxes
• Grandiflora types have bigger blooms; multiflora types are more weather-resistant
• Fertilize every 2 weeks with balanced fertilizer for continuous bloom

Companion Planting

Good companions: tomatoes, peppers (deter aphids), beans

Avoid planting near: Heavy shade

Harvest Timeline

Ornamental; deadhead regularly to extend bloom season