Petunia Tidal Wave Red Velour

For the last couple of years I’ve bought Red Velour Tidal Wave online as plug plants as I can never seem to find them in garden centres and I absolutely love them in hanging baskets. So at the end of last year I thought I’d get ahead of the game and I collected hundreds of seeds from the plants and saved them. I sowed them in the middle of March and have pricked them out and potted them in to individual little pots … but they seem so small.

Does anyone have any experience of doing this? Do you think they’ll grow quick enough to be any good this year? I’m at the stage where I’d quite like to start planting my summer pots and don’t want to buy other plants if these will be ok? I’m hoping that @BenCotto sees this thread as I know he loves this plant and grows them in spectacular fashion!

Here’s a photo of what they look like today.

 

It appears to be an F1 hybrid, so not sure your seedlings will be identical to the original plant.

Maybe a weak feed will speed them up, I'm noticing mutipurpose compost is having hardy any feed in it these days and seedlings just stop growing.

 

Thanks @pete oh no I didn’t realise about the F1 hybrid thing!! So who knows what they’ll look like. They were so stunning last year and I was hoping to have loads of them this year

 

I just looked it up, its not something I grow, but you will probably get something, but if you really want the real thing it might be best to get some plants from somewhere and next year buy some seeds.

 

@CatDouch , I’m growing them for the first time this year and bought small plants from Sarah Raven. They’re about three times the size of your seedlings now. Will be interesting to see what the flowers are like on yours!

 

I bought mine last year as plug plants from Sarah Raven @Bluejayway and they were absolutely fantastic, you should have a fabulous display. Here’s mine from last year.

 

Really looking forward to them flowering @CatDouch

 

I am afraid after about seven years of propagating by cuttings from the original six I bought, the plants rather ran out of steam. This season I bought 40 seedlings from the RHS. On arrival they were very similar in size to those in your photo, @CatDouch. That was around April 10th. I potted them up in Sylvagrow compost and left them in the greenhouse.

Despite so much cool, grey weather they flourished. Four weeks later they were easily big enough to plant out, though weather wise that was too soon. This week I capitulated and planted them. Tomorrow I’ll post photos.

In summary, @CatDouch, I’d say your plants will be ready to plant out by mid June and flowering impressively by the end of the month.

My main displays are in large pots with a peony support put in them. Yesterday, browsing for something else, I came across this. I think a two tier pot could make a very impressive display of Red Velour. I’d use three plants in the pot.
Flexigro Plant Support Towers - Including Pot and Saucer

 

Four plants were planted in this copper wash pot found buried in the garden and, in the first photo, what they looked like about five weeks later.






In this third picture you can see the peony support more clearly

 

Thanks @BenCotto that's encouraging that you think size wise they’ll get there in another month but I’m a bit worried now about the F1 hybrid factor … they might not be identical to the original plant!

In a fit of panic and after reading @pete comments I’ve ordered six 9 cm pots of Red Velour from Sarah Raven. At least I’ll have those if my seedlings don’t end up looking quite right.

Hopefully I’ll end up with a gorgeous display somehow or other.

 

In a fit of panic and after reading @pete comments I’ve ordered six 9 cm pots of Red Velour from Sarah Raven. At least I’ll have those if my seedlings don’t end up looking quite right.

My guess is that each of those plants will have enough strong shoots to take about five cuttings from each plant. OK, it will delay flowering by a couple of weeks, and the cuttings won’t be ready to plant out until maybe mid July … but, buy six plants but get 36 - you’ve got a bargain.

 

I bought a packet of seeds beginning of March, they were rather expensive I thought £2.24 for 12 seeds (though there were about 15 seeds in the tiny vail they came in). My seeds are smaller than yours though, just coming into their 2nd set of true leaves. They have been grown without any heat. Think next year I'll buy the plugins as I did last year. There are spaces for them in the hanging baskets if they buck up!

 

I’ve never tried cuttings from petunias, how/where do you overwinter them?

 

@Butterfly6, with a pot of petunias I cut them back to about three or four inches and in mid Autumn put them in the unheated greenhouse or cold frame. A cold porch or a very sheltered spot against the house wall would do just as well. Keep the compost dry and periodically remove dying leaves, especially any going mouldy.

The bits you trim off in mid Autumn to early winter can be used for cuttings, overwintered in a greenhouse or unheated conservatory etc. I take a stem about 3 to 4” long, cut just below a leaf joint, and take off the lower leaves and, if there is one, the nascent flower bud. Put the cutting into a small pot of 50% compost, 50% perlite, slightly damp, and pop a clear drinks beaker over the top. Trimming the lip of the beaker sometimes gives a very snug fit. Periodically tap the beaker to shed the condensation or wipe it out with a cloth. After a month or so you should see signs of growth. When roots are visible coming through the base of the pot you can take the lid off. With cuttings done at this time of year - cold, very low light levels - expect about 40 - 80% to become viable plants ready to burst into accelerated growth in mid spring. At this point I might pot them on into a richer compost without perlite.

Meanwhile the overwintered ‘parent’ pot will be starting to grow so water it but quite sparingly, and new shoots can also be used for cuttings. With more warmth and better light you can expect a success rate of over 90%. You can also take cuttings now (mid May) and should have plants ready to plant out by early July.

All the above relates to petunia Tidal Wave Red Velour. They seem exceptionally easy to propagate but I have not tried other petunias as I rarely grow them. I did try one year to take autumn cuttings of calibrachoa (cinnamon, French vanilla and caramel) but the success rate was way lower.

PS In Spring 2017 I bought six petunia plug plants. Using the technique above these six plants were propagated and propagated year after year probably giving ‘birth’ to about 250 offspring. Protected by Plant Breeders Rights, I just gave away the excess. But last Autumn, largely due to my wife’s terminal cancer diagnosis (now after a gruelling winter of treatment in temporary abeyance, thank Heavens) I lost the impetus to do anything in the garden and the line has all but died out. But, and I remember the moment well because it was while Mrs Cotto was having chemotherapy, I ordered 60 seedlings from the RHS. Buy 40, get 20 free. They were great quality. I knew 60 was far more than I needed but the plants were hugely admired last summer by my Italian class when we hosted a garden party so I promised them if I had spares I would share them. On Monday I am taking in 15 very vigorous plants and will also given a mini lesson (I fear in Italian!) on how to take cuttings so the 15 plants will end up closer to 100.

 

As promised, @CatDouch, here are photos of my Red Velour five weeks on from the size yours currently are:

I have hay baskets at the front and back of the house



Not one but about five pots of RV in front of the conservatory


I do like massed plants of one variety. Here are Erigeron karvinskianus in front of the fountain. By summer the plant pots should be invisible


As always, RV in front of the brick shed.once they have climbed the peony support they’ll clamber through the callicarpa just behind


Per gli italiani


Spares to replace the dahlias out the front which I fear may not have survived the winter. If the dahlias perform a Lazarus act I’ll give these away too. In the background are Cosmos seedlings. I bought 20 from Ashridge Nursery but almost every plug had two seedlings in it. Carefully teasing them apart, 20=39.