F₁ All Double Petunia "Victorious Mixed", World's First All Double Flower and Our First-Ever Prize in the All-America Selections

F₁ All Double Petunia "Victorious Mixed" - Petunia Seed Worth More Than Gold

The petunia was introduced in Japan as Tsukubane Asagao (morning glory shuttlecock) and has enjoyed its status as an iconic flower that adorned homes from spring to summer. While there were single flower and double flower petunias, neither was raised in Japan at that time. While in North America double flowers were bred with colors more vibrant than the native Japanese varieties, these included a mixture of single flower, with none producing 100% double flower petunia. It was a few years from the start of R&D aimed at perfecting a 100% double flower variety when we finally succeeded with the "All Double Petunia", which was awarded our first-ever prize in the All-America Selections. In no time at all, we were inundated with orders from around the world and for a time, the seeds were selling, at the retail price, for 20 times the price of gold, at USD 10,656/lb (1lb= approx. 454g).