Me.
I have about 5 6-packs. The plants are just starting to get big now. Got my seeds from Park's. "Dolce" means easy or sweet in Italian, I think.
It is good to know that I will pleased when they flower.

When I tried petunias from seed a few years ago, I had no luck. I guess I've got petunias licked now. Impatiens are the ones I still can't grow from seed. I got one plant for all the seed I sowed.

I do all my plants from seed. Petunias, I start in January (all petunias including waves and non-waves) and I pinch them at least once. By the time they are ready to be planted out, they are in 4 inch pots, rather than cell packs or larger. My petunias are thick and lush, and I have found that rabbits dont bother them as much when planted out if they are thicker plants (anyone know why??). These Dolces have super thick stems and are really tough plants. I would like to post a picture, but it keeps raining here and they are all hanging their heads a bit. However, even after a heavy rain they rebound quickly and still put on a show.

I grew about 1200 impatiens from seed this year, and yes, they will damp off quicker than any other seedling I have ever seen. One trick I have learned is to keep them on the heat mat just a bit longer after germinating...........I have several heat mats and I have some that are under lights but without the dome for post germination but still needing heat. I keep impatiens on this additional heat (without the dome) for several days before I remove them from heat. I have 99% better chance of no damp off doing this (I learned the hard way last year). I have also found that certain kinds damp off more than others, I grew several kinds this year: Tempos, Encore, Xtreme, and Brunos (my favorite), and others. Brunos damp off terribly, Tempos do also, but the Xtreme and Encore were outstanding performers, from seedling on. I had 100% germination out of both of them and they are very stout robust plants.

You will be pleased with the performance of your Dolces! I cant wait for more colors that may come out of them.

I grew 'Flambe', and 'Limoncello last year and they were fantastic.

For some reason I thought I had more seeds left over for this year, but those Parks seed packs are stingier then other vendors, so there were none. Oh, well, maybe next year. :) They are definately worth growing.

I grew Dolce's last year from seed, and I loved them.....so pretty and really nice plants. I collected seed in the fall and winter sowed them this winter. Germination was fantastic and I had 5 milk jugs FULL of seedlings. If it ever stops raining here, I should have blooms in a week or two. Hopefully, some will come true.....either way, it will be interesting to see what they look like.

~Deb

Deb, I will be very interested in seeing how your collected seed turns out. I wish I had collected some last year and did some experimentals overwinter to see what would happen with them (I am not in the habit of collecting petunia seed). I would love to have other colors growing on these thick tough plants. Even though they have to be deadheaded, the flower stems are so large you can see clearly where the spent blooms were..............easy deadheading compared to other "nonwave" petunias. I find the colors to be very "earthy" toned.

I will have to post a photo tomorrow of my display bed!

They look like they will be blooming in another week. I'll post a picture when they do. They look REALLY healthy at this point! I love winter sowing petunias....it doesn't get any easier. The only down side is that you have to wait a couple of extra weeks for flowers.