This is the time of the year gardeners browse seed catalogues and websites, making lists of what might be interesting or fun or delicious to grow. One new annual, Petunia Tidal Wave Red Velour, caught my eye. Connie L. Dam-Byl, flower seed manager at William Dam Seeds Ltd. in Dundas, Ont., says it was both the red carpet and the star in their display gardens in 2015. It won Fleuroselect Gold & AAS Winners awards because of its glamorous colour and bold growing habit (one plant every two feet/60 m). “Large flowers cover the vigorously spreading plants that rarely need deadheading because new blooms continuously pop up and cover the old, spent blooms,” says the AAS award.
“As soon as it began to bloom (and it was one of the first petunias in the flats to do so), staff in the greenhouse wanted to have leftovers for their own gardens,” Connie says. “Tidal Waves are the opposite of compact, but they’re great for filling a space with colourful blooms.”
Of course, there are many choices for flowers and vegetables in various seed catalogues. Part of the appeal of growing from seed is the ability to have plants that might not otherwise be available at garden centres. Advertisers in Garden Making worth checking out (listed in alphabetical order) include:
- Anything Grows
- Florabunda Seeds
- Halifax Seed
- Stokes Seeds
- Terra Edibles
- Sunshine Farm
- Veseys
- William Dam Seed
Guides to growing from seed
We saw this at William Dam’s gardens this summer. It is gorgeous. I don’t generally grow red flowers but this was the first seed I ordered this year.
Last year I tried both Tidal Wave and Easy Wave Red Velour petunias. The Tidal Wave was much superior and grew forever.The Easy Wave had limited growth and bloom.