Every year, I try some new plant in my pots that hang off of my front porch. Some years, I am successful, some not so much. This year, I tried wave petunias. The have been a wonderful success, though they did get a little leggy on me. I probably need to read more about pruning them.
Since they have gotten a bit leggy, I was able to collect some of the seeds, which I then threw into another pot that I had just sitting around with some dirt in it. The above picture is the result. See how some of the petunias are the dark color that I planted and some are lighter. What's up with that? Did they revert back to their mommy and daddy plants? I'm trying to remember my college biology here, but failing miserably. Any budding scientists (get it..budding..oh never mind), want to help me out here?
19 comments:
I have four hangers in my yard that are usually occupied by Wave Petunias every summer (mostly because they are inexpensive and low maintenance.) But they are always multi-colored. I just thought that was the nature of this particular plant, no? I guess not!
Mine too vary in shades of the parent color. Once you have petunias, if you save the seed as I do, you always have them! I just harvested all my seed from the leggy plant. I love petunias and so do the Hummingbirds.
Let's suppose the petunias from the store are hybrids, LD, the gene for color. The seeds would then be LL, LD, LD, and DD. Now color genes are probably more complicated than that, but you get the idea. You would expect a mix of colors. My wave petunias are always leggy, too, and not only do the hummingbirds love them, so do the caterpillars.
Oh, lucky you!
While in college, I was the gardener for a car dealership... just before I went back to school, I plucked a lot of the blossoms, and cut some back a bit.. The owner was mad, but two weeks later, he was thanking me!
lovely!
I think you're correct when you say they did revert back to the original strain. I'm not very good at remembering to plant the seeds from year to year - I misplace them somehow.
Sam
Yes. Think Gregor Mendel's peas. Some of the cute little baby seedlets have Daddy's dark coloration, and some are light like Mommy. So you get a charming variety in a pot. Or you could just keep throwing money at the nursery and buying single color petunias. It's up to you. I'll call my 8th grader for a consult, if you need more specifics. He's just finishing up heredity in the cell unit of science.
They look lovely! Amazing that they grew so well from seed.
Mine always get aphids lately, they are a problem here so I had to skip the petunias this year. :(
This is great. They look beautiful and you obviously have a green thumb to reinvigorate them the way you did! I salute you!
Clever girl. Whether you meant to or not, I love the mixture of colors.
Don't know for sure but I think it probably works just like parent/children eye color.
The colors are beautiful!
I wish that I personally would get a little more leggy. Ah well. In lieu of that, I'd love to be able to throw some seeds in a pot and have these budding beauties as a result! Um, cute joke, too! Budding ... yeh, I get it! :-)
Some people have green thumbs. Lovely.
I think the colors look like a good mix of mommy and daddy... beautiful~
I am planting some next year!
I thought all of the Wave petunias had the different colored flowers like this. Maybe.
My zinnias did the same thing. I have pink and orange on the same plant. Funny!
All of my flowers are long gone. Thanks for sharing.
Let's say you have two genes. One for dark pink and one for light pink. Your originals probably had the genes for both dark pink and light pink, but the dark pink gene dominated and so that's what you saw. When you crossed two of your originals, you were then able to get plants that were dark pink, but also those that had two light pink genes and so were light pink. And now that I have just rambled on about Mendelian genetics for many lines, I shall stop.
Beautiful flowers.
I always "pinch" my petunias and impatients back in early July. It seems so mean, but it only takes them a couple of weeks to recover. Then they are beautiful till frost. Yours are lovely, and the season all but over.
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