Flowering petunias, Petunia x hybrida, are sun-loving tender perennials in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 to 11. They may be grown as annuals in all temperate locales.
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Suited to cultivation in beds, borders, and containers, they bring rich and varied color to the home landscape.
In our guide to growing petunias, you’ll find all you need to know to grow your own.
This article offers 19 of the best purple petunia varieties for eye-popping color from spring to fall.
Here’s the lineup:
19 of the Best Purple Petunias
The following selections highlight the key features of 19 of the best purple petunias.
These are garden petunia hybrids, Petunia x hybrida, except as noted. They encompass the broad spectrum of purple hues ranging from lavender and orchid to blue-violet and black.
Petunias are available in multiple varieties, including:
- Spreading, aka Ground Covering or Trailing
- Multiflora
- Milliflora
- Grandiflora
- Floribunda, a cross between Grandiflora and Multiflora
The category is noted for each entry below, and you can read more about different types of petunias in our guide.
Prepare to indulge in a feast for the eyes!
1. Alderman
Petunia nana compacta ‘Alderman,’ aka ‘Alderman Blue,’ has deep violet blossoms. Mature dimensions are six to 12 inches tall and 12 to 18 inches wide.
‘Alderman’ is a bushy, compact plant with a low profile and a sweet fragrance. It is a dwarf multiflora variety characterized by smaller, more abundant flowers and a compact growth habit.
It has noteworthy drought and heat tolerance and performs best with deadheading.
In the garden, ‘Alderman’ is suited to mass planting in drifts and creates a ribbon of color as garden edging. It also shows well in planters and window boxes.
‘Alderman’ is available from Eden Brothers in packets containing 350 milligrams of seed.
2. Black Cat
Sweetly scented Black Cat, aka Black Velvet, Petunia ‘Balpevac’ is a shade of purple so dark as to appear black.
It is a compact, upright, mounding plant with a mature height and width of eight to 12 inches, as is typical of a multiflora type.
The petite stature of this variety makes it especially well suited to container gardening and front of bed and border placements.
Deadhead to promote reblooming.
Black Cat is available from Burpee in a four-plant bundle.
3. Daddy Blue
Daddy® Blue aka Petunia x ‘PAS3085’ is a showy grandiflora variety in the Daddy® series. It boasts lavender trumpets, throats veined with purple, and the ruffled edges typical of Daddy® cultivars.
Flowers measure three to four inches across. Upright, mounding plants achieve heights of 12 to 15 inches and a width of 10 to 12 inches. They are equally suited to beds and pots.
For best results, deadhead spent blossoms, avoid oversaturation, and consider a different variety if you live in a region with high humidity or risk rotting from excess moisture.
Daddy® Blue is available from True Leaf Market in packets of 25, 100, or 1,000 pelleted seeds.
4. Double Cascade Blue
Double Cascade® Blue is a lush option. It’s a grandiflora with ruffled, fully double, deep violet-blue petals. The full-bodied flowers measure three to three and a half inches wide.
Despite the name, this type does not cascade dramatically. Instead, it is somewhat bushy and semi-trailing, a growth habit suited to pots, window boxes, and garden placements.
Mature dimensions are 10 to 15 inches tall and 10 to 12 inches wide.
Double Cascade® Blue is available from True Leaf Market in packets of 25, 100, or 1,000 pelleted seeds.
5. Double Madness Lavender
Double Madness™ Lavender, aka Petunia x ‘PAS3140,’ is a flouncy, ruffled floribunda. It has fully double petals in a bright shade of orchid. The sumptuous blooms measure two to three inches across.
Mature dimensions are 10 to 15 inches tall and 10 to 12 inches wide for a compact, bushy, semi-trailing attraction. Whether bedding in the garden or displaying in a pot or window box, this variety is sure to please.
Floribunda types have exceptional disease and wet weather tolerance. They perform best with deadheading.
Double Madness™ Lavender is available from True Leaf Market in packets of 25, 100, or 1,000 pelleted seeds.
6. Grande Supertunia Mini Vista Violet Star
The bicolor purple and white striping of Grande Supertunia Mini Vista® ‘Violet Star’ makes this milliflora type an outstanding choice.
It has a mounding growth habit with semi-trailing stems. Expect a mature height of six to 12 inches with a spread of 18 to 24 inches.
The blooms are more like those of species in the Calibrachoa genus, plants with a petunia-like appearance.
They measure approximately one inch in diameter, and while they are small, they are plentiful.
Grande Supertunia Mini Vista® ‘Violet Star’
Whether you choose to display it in a hanging planter, window box, or en masse in the landscape, this variety adds cheerful color and tolerates heat and drought well.
Grande Supertunia Mini Vista® ‘Violet Star’ is available from Proven Winners via Home Depot in a four-pack bundle of four-and-a-quarter-inch pots containing four- to eight-inch-tall plants.
7. Headliner Night Sky
Night Sky® is a stunning trailing variety in the Headliner™ series that offers a celestial array of white, starry speckles strewn across purple petals with blooms that measure two to two and a half inches across.
Overall mature dimensions are 10 to 16 inches tall and 20 to 30 inches wide. The growth habit is mounded and trailing, perfect for hanging baskets and mass plantings where it has room to spread.
This cultivar has noteworthy heat tolerance, and deadheading is recommended to prolong blooming.
A unique aspect is that the white speckling varies with temperature changes for a diverse presentation.
Headliner™Night Sky® is available from Burpee in a four-plant bundle.
8. Hulahoop Blue
The Hulahoop series offers ruffled blossoms with a three-inch diameter. The blue selection has blue-violet trumpets with bright white margins, a pattern known as picotee.
Mature dimensions are 10 to 15 inches tall and 10 to 12 inches wide, making this a versatile choice for pots and garden placements.
Like other floribundas, Hulahoop Blue is more tolerant of wet weather and disease than some types and performs best with deadheading.
Hulahoop Blue is available from True Leaf Market in packets of 25, 100, and 1,000 pelleted seeds.
9. Laura Bush
‘Laura Bush,’ is a fragrant hybrid of an old-fashioned trailing petunia and P. violacea, aka VIP petunia. It is part of the Texas Superstar® series that has been bred to withstand heat and disease.
This hybrid sports a profusion of small violet flowers that measure one to one and a half inches wide. The growth habit is bushy and trailing or spreading.
Mature dimensions are 18 to 24 inches tall and 24 to 36 inches wide, making it perfect for displaying in hanging baskets and pedestal pots from which its long stems can gracefully cascade.
‘Laura Bush’ is also suited to mass plantings where it is the focal point, such as a dedicated drift.
This cultivar is available from David’s Garden Seeds via Amazon in packets of 200 seeds.
10. Midnight Gold
‘Midnight Gold’ is a grandiflora picotee with fully double, two-inch royal purple blossoms edged in creamy gold.
The blossoms measure two inches across and adorn semi-trailing stems. Mature dimensions are eight to 10 inches tall and 20 to 26 inches wide.
Display this choice in a dedicated planter or window box to showcase its exquisite coloration and robust blooms, or let it take center stage as a specimen in a prominent garden bed.
‘Midnight Gold’ is available from Burpee in a four-plant bundle.
11. Picobella Lavender Improved
The ‘Lavender Improved’ cultivar from the Picobella™ series is a milliflora variety that showcases masses of two- to three-inch lavender blossoms.
It’s a dwarf plant with the compact, mounding growth habit typical of a milliflora.
Picobella™ ‘Lavender Improved’
At maturity, it measures eight to 10 inches tall and 10 to 12 inches wide, making this selection suited to garden edging and container cultivation.
Picobella™ ‘Lavender Improved’ is available from True Leaf Market in packets of 25, 100, or 1,000 seeds.
12. Shock Wave Purple Tie Dye
Shock Wave® Purple Tie Dye, aka Petunia x ‘PAS982897,’ from the Wave® series is a trailing variety with variegated, bicolor purple and white blossoms that measure one and a half to two inches across.
The colorful display is an ever-changing delight that varies with the temperature.
Its growth habit is mounding and spreading, with mature dimensions of seven to 10 inches tall and 20 to 30 inches wide.
This option is an excellent ground cover choice for borders, edging, and containers that showcase its trailing tendrils.
Shock Wave® Purple Tie Dye is available from Outside Pride via Amazon in packages of 15 or 30 seeds.
13. Supercascade Blue
Supercascade Blue is a grandiflora variety with showy blue-violet, velvety blossoms four to five inches in diameter.
This type has mounding, upright growth, and semi-trailing stems. Mature dimensions are 10 to 15 inches tall and 10 to 12 inches wide. Showcase it in a pot, window box, or garden bed.
Avoid excess moisture and deadhead to prolong blooming.
Supercascade Blue is available from True Leaf Market in packets of 25, 100, or 1,000 seeds.
14. Supertunia Bordeaux
Pleasantly fragrant Supertunia® Bordeaux™, aka ‘Lanbor,’ is a trailing variety with medium to large – or approximately three- to four-inch – pinkish-lavender blossoms with purple throats and veining.
The two-tone effect adds depth for exceptional visual appeal.
Cultivars in the Supertunia® series have a low profile and a slightly mounding, spreading growth habit. Mature dimensions are five to seven inches tall and 24 to 36 inches wide.
They show well in hanging planters, mass planted in borders, and where edging is desired.
In addition, they tolerate heat and drought, resist disease, and do not require deadheading.
Supertunia® Bordeaux™ is available from Nature Hills Nursery.
15. Supertunia Picasso in Purple
Picasso in Purple® from the Supertunia® series ( Petunia x ‘DCASPITAYA’) is a trailing variety that displays striking bicolor blooms with magenta petals edged in lime green.
Mature dimensions are six to 12 inches tall and 24 to 36 inches wide.
When plants fill and spill over the sides of containers or wind through garden borders, the mounding and trailing growth habit shows these eye-catching flowers to best advantage.
Supertunia® Picasso in Purple®
As with other Supertunia® varieties, there is no need to deadhead, and the plants have noteworthy drought and heat tolerance.
Supertunia® Picasso in Purple® is available from Proven Winners via Home Depot in a four-pack bundle of four-and-a-quarter-inch pots containing four- to eight-inch tall plants.
16. Supertunia Priscilla
Fragrant Supertunia® Priscilla® is a trailing type adorned in fully double lavender blooms with purple throats and veining.
Characteristic of Supertunia®, it has a petite height of five to seven inches with a spread of 24 to 36 inches, as well as noteworthy heat and drought tolerance and disease resistance.
Attractive placements include hanging pots and mass-planted edges and borders.
Supertunia® Priscilla® is available from Nature Hills Nursery.
17. Supertunia Royal Velvet
Fragrant Royal Velvet™ is a trailing variety in the Supertunia® series festooned with bright purple blossoms.
Mature dimensions are five to seven inches tall and 24 to 36 inches wide.
The petite height and spreading growth habit make it perfect for container gardening to showcase the trailing tendrils or planting en masse as a ground cover in borders or dedicated drifts.
You can expect the same heat and drought tolerance and disease resistance characteristic of other Supertunia® plants.
Supertunia® Royal Velvet™ is available from Nature Hills Nursery.
18. Wave Purple
The purple cultivar (Petunia x ‘PAS760727’) in the Wave® series is a trailing variety with three-inch magenta blossoms.
Mature dimensions are five to seven inches tall and 36 to 48 inches wide.
Showcase the trailing, blossom-laden stems in a high-hanging planter, or let them spread through a border as a richly-hued ground cover.
Plants in the Wave® series are heat and drought-tolerant. Deadhead for optimal blooming.
Wave® Purple is available from Burpee in packets of 15 seeds or bundles of four plants.
19. Wild Petunia
Ruellia humilis, also known as wild or prairie petunia, is a native species – not a cultivated hybrid. It grows as a perennial in Zones 4 to 8.
It’s a compact, bushy plant with a spreading growth habit.
The small flowers are lavender to lilac, with trumpets measuring one to three inches deep that appeal to hummingbirds and other pollinators.
Plants are exceptionally tolerant of drought and rocky, dry soil.
Grow en masse in informal landscapes to provide nectar for native species.
Wild petunia is available from Nature Hills Nursery in packages of three starter containers measuring two by two by three inches.
Feed Your Purple Passion
The color purple and I go back a long way. From my childhood bedroom walls to my bike, winter coat, and favorite party dress, it had to be purple.
As a gardener, in addition to petunias, I gravitate toward flowers like asters, clematis, irises, pansies, and salvia to feed my purple passion.
Now that you’ve met 19 of the best purple petunia varieties, it’s time to add your favorites to your garden planner. Will you be planting in the garden? A hanging planter? A window box?
Consider pairing your new selections with other sun- and moisture-loving flora.
Choose yellow blooms, like African daisy, coreopsis, marigold, or other petunias, for a contrasting display.
For a complementary scheme, mix with pink flowers, like begonias, geraniums, snapdragons, or other petunias.
Purple is a versatile color in the landscape. Experiment and enjoy! Feel free to share your top picks, creative combinations, and photos with us in the comments.
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