WILD PETUNIAS! What does that name conjure up?
Petunias run wild! Fun times …. Gosh
I’ve been in quarantine too long! But my
yard and garden is a refuge in these times of “corona virus lockdown”.
I love my wild petunias (Ruellia caroliniensis) and I’ve doubled
the number of plants since they were planted in September 2018, in my backyard
(the west side of the house). Fresh
blooms every day for spring, summer and fall, April - September.
It is the host to two types of butterflies, the common buckeye and the white
peacock. Its tubular flowers attract a
variety of pollinators. It will self-seed,
and this spring (second spring in my yard), I have found just a couple of
“volunteers” in the backyard bed.
Wild petunias are winter dormant, and by late fall are getting
leggy. I was advised to trim them
back. They will die back to the ground,
so the other advice I received was that I might want to mark where they are, so
I could remember over the winter. I marked
them with pinecones from the pine straw the first two winters. Now that I know where they are, or where
they are supposed to be, I don’t think I need to mark them anymore.
CAUTION: many big
box stores sell the highly invasive Mexican Petunias (Ruellia simplex). This invasive species will displace the
native species. It does not respond well to herbicides. I encourage you to “plant responsibly” –
Native plants support native wildlife.
RESOURCES:
September 2018 These Wild Petunias were planted in my backyard just 2 weeks earlier
June 2019 - My Wild Petunias in front of the Compact Firebush
Wild Petunia with White Peacock butterfly (from FlWildflowers.org)
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