Petunia 'Black Cherry'

Petunia Debonair 'Black Cherry' is a new introduction from the Ball Horticultural. I believe this black petunia will be widely available next year. I received a few plugs of the 'Black Cherry' petunia this spring from Ball to trial in my garden. As a lover of black plants and flowers I was really excited about trialing another dark blooming plant.

When Ball released petunia 'Black Cat' last year I similarly got a few sample plants for my garden and wrote about them it at the time. Even though 'Black Cat' showed some abnormalities when it was under stress, it was still a wonderful black flower to grow.

My 'Black Cherry' plants did well over the spring and are doing exceptionally well holding up to the heat in the garden at the moment. So far, I've found that the dark coloring of this petunia to be pretty similar to the coloring of flower in the marketing material. To give you an idea of just how black the flower's bloom really is I'm providing two photographs. The picture of 'Black Cherry' above was taken on a sunny day in full sun.

This photograph of petunia 'Black Cherry' was taken on a cloudy day a couple of weeks ago. Depending on the lighting conditions dark blooms may or may not look very black. Like with my black iris, I've found that so-called black blooms look more purple or blue in sun.

'Black Cherry' looks dark enough, in my opinion, to be called a black bloom in either light. One difference that I have observed is that the blooms are larger, and a lot more floppy in, cool, cloudy weather, and prone to tearing in high winds. Whereas in the heat, the blooms are smaller and tighter. That's not to knock against it, just an observation.

What does the color of petunia 'Black Cherry' look like in person? Pretty much like the first photo. The color is dark, like really ripe cherries, and there's a nice shimmer to the petals in the sun. There isn't a whole lot written about 'Black Cherry' on the Internet at the moment, and only the Summer Hill Seeds company is listing the seeds available at the. But I did find a mention that yellow breaks may occur when 'Black Cherry' is grown in cold conditions. Which indicates that 'Black Cherry' and petunia 'Black Cat' have a similar lineage because 'Black Cat' showed the yellow breaks characteristic of petunia 'Phantom' when it was stressed.

If you like black flowers look for petunia 'Black Cherry' at your garden center or nursery next year. I expect Burpee, along with some other seed companies, will be carrying seeds for 'Black Cherry' next year.