Superbells

If your idea of gardening is tending to a few pots or planters on a deck or patio, you can’t go wrong with Superbells (Calibrachoa).

When these miniature petunia-lookalikes first appeared at garden centers only a handful of solid colors were available. Now you can find them in just about every color under the sun in addition to flowers that are bi-colored, striped or mottled.

I hadn’t grown Superbells for a long time because I usually have so many leftover homegrown petunias that I pot up, but last spring I couldn’t resist the flashy, citrusy blooms of ‘Lemon Slice’ (above).

Superbells are actually a very tender perennial in Zones 9-11, but everywhere else they are grown as annuals. Most cultivars grow 6 to 12 inches tall, and they like at least 6 hours of sunlight each day. The plants don’t need any deadheading, but if they start to look a little tired in mid-summer you can trim them back to promote bushy growth and more flowers. They’ll blooms like fools all summer if you give them a little fertilizer every two weeks.

Superbells are heat-tolerant and pest- and disease-free. The only thing that they do not tolerate is overly-saturated soil.

One of our local garden centers always has a terrific selection of Superbells each spring. I plan to wander the aisles in a few weeks and see what catches my attention. I did see two new interesting varieties at a test garden last summer. This is ‘Holy Moly’:

But the one that really impressed me was ‘Evening Star’: