are petunias perennials
All About Petunias. Petunias have always offered nonstop summer bloom, but now you're more likely to find a color, size, and growth habit to suit your garden needs. New, vigorous trailing types and miniature-flowered types have rekindled gardeners' interest. Petunias are low-growing, bushy to spreading tender perennials usually grown as annuals. These dwarf petunias grow to about two-thirds the size of multifloras. Small, delicate, 1- to 1-1/2-inch blooms cover the compact plants, which are ideal for containers, window boxes, and hanging baskets. I plant millifloras as a border, spacing them about 8 inches apart. Plants form mounds 6 to 8 inches across. Annuals have to be planted every year, or annually. Perennials come up year after year after year, or perennially. Examples of annuals include petunias, pansies and impatiens. At garden stores, you can buy large trays of annuals, which are called flats. Flats contain 48 young blossoming plants, and they typically cost about $15. Petunias are generally insect pollinated, with the exception of P. exserta, which is a rare, red-flowered, hummingbird-pollinated species. Most petunias are diploid with 14 chromosomes and are interfertile with other petunia species. The tubular flowers are favoured by some Lepidoptera species, including the Hummingbird hawk moth. The flowers are eaten by the larvae of the corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea and the cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni. According to the Gardener's Network, the majority of petunias are perennials. Annual perennials can survive soft freezes but not hard ones. Perennial petunias come back every year. Check the cultivar to see if your perennial is annual or perennial. Technically speaking, trees and shrubs are perennial plants -- they grow for more than two years. But horticulturists usually categorize perennial plants into two types: woody plants and herbaceous perennials. For many gardeners, annuals are a go-to solution for many garden needs. Annual flowers are a quick way to fill empty spots in flowerbeds, and early-blooming spring annuals make great additions to container gardens. A mix of annual plants can offer a colorful solution for windowbox plantings. However, for any garden, there are dozens of annuals that might work for particular sun/shade situations, soil conditions, and color/plant preferences. This article is about a genus of flowering plants. For other uses, see Petunia (disambiguation). Petunia is genus of 35 species of flowering plants of South American origin, closely related to tobacco, cape gooseberries, tomatoes, deadly nightshades, potatoes and chili peppers in the same family, Solanaceae. Perennial plants remain in the ground year after year. Once established, many perennials need minimal upkeep in the form of watering and fertilizing, since their roots are more far-ranging than annual plants’ roots. Many perennials spread readily, filling out garden spaces and providing more and more color each year. Familiar annual plants include impatiens, zinnias, and sunflowers. Biennial plants, such as some types of foxglove, live for two growing seasons before setting seed and dying. The term perennial is reserved for plants that live for more than two years. Trees and shrubs live for more than two years.
Yes, they are perennials.