In my opinion, if you want THAT kind of color, you need to take a look at Portulaca oleraca. I'm pretty sure that I've not seen a plant with brighter colors. It's a full sun plant, and one that needs very little care. Occasional doses of soluble fertilizer keep it in production until frost and it never slows down in the heat of the summer.

I am not talking about the ground cover plant commonly called Moss Rose (Portulaca grandiflora), but the flat leaved Portulaca oleraca. They are popular in the garden centers, but seeds are available. They don't come in as many varieties or colors as petunias but they are exceedingly bright.

Petunias, of course, are very popular and come in a wide range of colors. They can make a showier basket.

Speaking of growing from seed. Are you equipped with everything you need to take on that project? Can we assume that you know how long it can take from seed to planting?

Here is a link that might be useful: Portulaca oleraca

Equipped? Project? uhhh, I guess I am way more clueless than I thought! lol I looked at the link, and the pictures are intriguing. I may just have to pop over to a nursery!

Yep.......equipped. LOL. If you wanted to grow basket petunias or geraniums from seed, they'd be planted by now.

Just speaking to vibrant petunias........I love the Wave lavender for visibility at low light levels. This is important if you want to enjoy your plantings in the early morning or evening or be visible from any distance. It's not gaudy, but it glows and shows. Opera Supreme Pink Morn is another good one. I like the dark, deep shades, but I have acreage in gardens and I want to actually see my plantings from more than just the immediate vicinity of the beds, like from the gazebo or kitchen window. That led me to rethink some plantings to include soft, but glowing plants in shades I might not otherwise have used.

I found out that a mottled light salmon impatien worked best along the drive in the shade of the large juniper hedges. I tried a pink one year and it was too cool and got lost. The 'heat' of the orange overtones was needed. It also made me decide that bright orange exbury azalea was needed at one property line instead of my fav soft pink if I wanted to enjoy it in early spring from my windows. Ditto replacing some large urns at the end of the drive I had formerly used a dark brick-red pelargonium in.

Wave petunias seeds are certainly less expensive than the plants, but at close to $3 for 10 pelleted seeds, they can add up fast if you want a lot of them. And if you haven't grown seed under lights before there will be an investment for the lights, tray, growing medium etc. Mine started germinating a few days ago, I planted 40 seeds, and had about 85% germination.

They grow very well from cuttings in pearlite, so my plan is to quadruple the number of plants via cuttings. Since I cant put them outside until mid May or so, I have plenty of time (but maybe not enough room)

calik, you might want to spend some time in the Growing From Seed forum (I've attached a link), just to get an idea of some of the many options you have for growing your own annuals from seed. It's a very rewarding 'project', but not something to go into without doing your homework first.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing From Seed

I am not sure how things work out there on the left coast when it comes to petunias but here in zone 5 I started my wave petunias from seed February 1st and they are coming up on being about the size of a quarter and under. I still have until the middle of April before my last frost.

If you are not too picky about a petunia being exactly true to its parent plant(open pollinated) you can easily collect the seeds from them and save a lot of money. My red waves are still red, purples are still purple and whites are still white. They will even last more than a year if kept in an air tight container.

I start quite a few seeds of a lot of things and I usually run out of room for them since many have to be potted up to larger pots before I can move them outdoors. This takes up more room than the flats they are started in.

This is were I start my seeds. The seedling cart was $600.00. Four shoplights to the left plus two other shop lights in that room.
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This is what I just set up a few days ago in the basement. I can flood the table using a pump to bottom water everything at once and then let it drain off back into a stock tank where I keep fertilized filtered water. Eleven shop lights. I put about $400.00 in this setup but I had a few of the things already like the stock tank, hardware, plywood and 950gpm water pump.
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That new table you have is impressive. I'm not mechanical enough to rig up that kind of system, nor do I have the floor space, but its a wow!

I love that table set up! Especially the way the lights are hung with easily adjusted heights. The fertilized water and drainage situation is also very cool. Are the lights set on a timer? Have you blown any fuses or been visited by the drug enforcement agency? Just kidding. Enjoy.

Martha

The lights are on a heavy duty timer plugged in to a dedicated 15amp circuit. I have two dedicated circuits there which will allow me to double up on the number of lights for when I build a second table and add other shelves with lights. I use a total of 1,672 watts of lights for growing. 880 watts in the basement and the rest upstairs. The utility company is used to our house having the highest bill in the neighborhood. We get mailed a comparison to the closest 100 houses and we always have the highest usage year round.