Picasso in Purple: One Special Supertunia

Naming a petunia Picasso gives clear indication this plant is something special. That is precisely what I thought, too, the first time I saw Supertunia Picasso in Purple in plant trials. Actually, I felt a little intimidated as I started thinking what would I do with this beautiful flower in containers or in the landscape.

Oddly, my opportunity came in October 2020. This is probably not your first thought when it comes to planting petunias. It is even an aggressive thought in zone 8a West Georgia, but that is precisely what happened, and the results I am about to share.

This unique petunia is a rich purple color with what Proven Winners describes as mint green edges, but I promise there will be plenty of times the mint green leans toward chartreuse, which is even more riveting. So right there, you have two color choices of incorporating into the design. In fact, a Proven Winner recipe named breathless may be the perfect partnership.

Breathless uses Angelface Perfectly Pink angelonia as the thriller. Though called pink, I know that it echoes the color of Picasso in Purple to perfection. But it is the choice of the ornamental Sweet Caroline Light Green Sweet Potato that is the finishing touch as it picks up the green in the petunia.

So the first week of October 2020, I planted my Picasso in Purple in the landscape and in a prized container I had in reserve for just an occasion like this. In the landscape I obviously used it as a groundcover flower and partnered it with Firelight Tidbit hydrangea paniculata that was planted a week earlier.

The purple flowers made a magical partnership with the hydrangea blossoms as they turned from white to various shades of pink. All of the Supertunias lasted until the end of June. This was nine months or right at 270 days, which was beyond my wildest dreams.

The Garden Guy is a sucker for containers that are made out of recycled or reconstituted material and my lavenderpurple container made out of bamboo was about to be put to the test with Supertunia Picasso in Purple petunia, also planted in October.

I chose Superbells Yellow calibrachoa and White Knight lobularia or sweet alyssum as partners. Again, I was probably even more surprised when everything including the pot survived the long winter. While we did not have the record cold of Texas and Louisiana, we did have a lot of nights in the mid-20s. By April, this was like the picture of a spring bouquet.

Like the other Supertunias I was growing, Picasso in Purple surprised me with frequent visits of the yellow Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. It was like nature was doing its part to enhance the color scheme. So it is déjà vu, as I have planted the partnerships again in the bamboo container.

The White Knight sweet alyssum that survived the winter also survived the summer and is starting to flush with blooms. This year I have added Lemon Coral sedum to echo the green in the Supertunia Picasso in Purple petunia. The Superbells Yellow calibrachoa is much underused and is a container wonder.

Supertunia Picasso in Purple gets about 12-inches tall with a spread of two feet, which is perfect for containers. Son James used them and they were the stars of the show in the containers of the Old Town community of North Columbus.

Like all other petunias, it needs fertile well-drained soil and plenty of sunlight.

If you live in the South and find it now, give it a chance but otherwise come spring be the first in line. Follow me on Faceboo @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy for more photos and garden inspiration.