are you in z4??

if so.. winter ought to have taken care of that problem ...

in 30 years in z5.. i do not recall any wintered-over volunteers ...

and if that is the case.. i dont know if i would have spent the time removing them last summer ...

caveat ... i havent tried tidal wave.. so i will defer if those are something odd ... but in my world.. a petunia.. should be a petunia.. and i am pretty sure their heritage runs thru the tropics.. and not z4 ... lol ..

correct me if i am wrong

ken

ken

Did the Tidal Waves volunteers produce quality plants? What variety (color) did you plant and what colors were the volunteers?
Thanks for the info,
Bob

Ken, I am indeed in zone 4. I tore out the Tidal Waves in August to make room for other plants, so at that time the seeds that were on the ground already began to sprout. Like you said, those sprouts wouldn't have overwintered, but I weeded them out anyway to keep the area clean. However, if I had torn out the Tidal Waves in October instead, wouldn't the seeds left on the ground have sprouted in the spring? In the past, when I've grown regular grandiflora petunias, that has happened to me. How does one keep that from happening?

Bob, I don't know what the seedlings would have grown up to because I weeded them out, but there were literally hundreds of them.

seeds are not.. by definition .. winter hardy ... some are some arent.... have you ever seen an impatiens seedling??? but i have a carpet of alysum [sp] seedlings every spring ... the examples are endless ... what do you grow that does and doesnt winter over its seed????

if the generic petunia were winter seed hardy .... then i would have seen seedlings for every year since mom planted the first ones in 1965 ... i think in the ensuing years.. i MIGHT have seen one seedling ... near a chimney, where the soil stayed warmer all winter ....

again .... i dont see why any other type of petunia would be seed hardy .. since .. most likely.. they all came genetically.. from the generic .. subject to any seed scientist correcting me ...

ken

I'm not sure what ken means when he says that "seeds are not...by definition...winter hardy..." Anyway, ken might not understand that you are not worried about overwintering seed, just the seeds that fall and germinate prolifically during the growing season.

gardener, the only way you can prevent the self-sowing is to dead head the flowers religiously BEFORE they go to seed. Unless, of course, you make use of a pre-emergent herbicide (such as 'Preen') after you've planted your petunias.

I can verify that petunia self sowing. I had hundreds of them last year, maybe because we had much milder winter than usual. I transplanted them and hopefully will have them again. I did have a lot of babies petunia this past August too but the cold will take care of that.