Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Group/Class:  Starlet Series

Brand:  Ball

Description:

Early flowering and fast to finish, this series presents a compact mounded habit with trailing tendencies, ideal for hanging baskets, containers or landscapes; beautiful brightly colored blooms contrast against medium green foliage; deadhead spent flowers

Ornamental Features

Starlet™ Velvet Petunia is blanketed in stunning black trumpet-shaped flowers with deep purple overtones at the ends of the stems from mid spring to mid fall. Its pointy leaves remain green in colour throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Starlet™ Velvet Petunia is a dense herbaceous annual with a mounded form. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep. Trim off the flower heads after they fade and die to encourage more blooms late into the season. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Starlet™ Velvet Petunia is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting
• Hanging Baskets

Planting & Growing

Starlet™ Velvet Petunia will grow to be about 10 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 20 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 20 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain low and dense right to the ground. This fast-growing annual will normally live for one full growing season, needing replacement the following year.

This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. This plant should not require much in the way of fertilizing once established, although it may appreciate a shot of general-purpose fertilizer from time to time early in the growing season. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid. It can be propagated by cuttings; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Starlet™ Velvet Petunia is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor containers and hanging baskets. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers against which the thriller plants stand out. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.