IDK what to say about the petunias, I usually don't have any trouble with them at all. I grow them in pots, though, not in the ground. I didn't grow them for a few years because they're a high maintenance plant -- they need deadheading or the old blooms kinda hang there like wet tissue, and they need a haircut mid-summer or they get straggly. Still, I love them -- I adore the scent (blues and whites tend to be the most fragrant, but sadly much of the fragrance has been lost with newer cultivars), and you can get some really rich, vibrant color. Anyway, I did pick up some transplants this year and they are growing well -- too well...they're taking over the planter and desperately need a haircut. But hey, I'm the one who has immense trouble with zinnias, so don't feel bad. At my other house I couldn't grow a shasta daily to save my life -- a shasta daisy! Any fool can grow those. But nope -- there was just something in the soil or conditions that they didn't like.

That is odd about your impatiens. They do need a lot of moisture, maybe the puny one is in a spot that for whatever reason is drier than the one close-by, or maybe it's just a runt. It happens.

I like wax begonias but I don't. LOL! I always think they look quite nice when I see them, but my mother and my sister always grew them and for whatever reason that bugs me :0/

Dee I’ve got some duds too…need to make note of them so I don’t buy again next spring.

Curious if yours are getting enough sun? I ask because look at the difference in these plants. The full ones were on my back deck.. east side full sun. Pitiful ones in front sitting area…northwest part shade. I swapped them out and within just a few days they were almost just as full as the others. I was amazed!

I have had petunias in the ground in alkaline clay here, and they did well. I bought some when they came out with those deep purple with creamy yellow ones. When I smell them, I always think of my MiL. They got married shortly after WWII, when a. there was no money, and b. there was nothing to buy. Somehow she managed to get a few cheap petunias, which bloomed for her in pots all summer long, and perfumed the air. They were her pride and joy, and she usually had some in her garden in later years. Thinking about it, she also had alkaline clay.

Yes, callirhoe! I have bought calabrachoa the last few years and it has indeed done much better. I do think I will try more of that for my pots next season. Not sure about in the ground though - I'm not saying they won't do well, I just don't know if I want them there. Actually, most of my beds are low so I like less-spreading plants, like the impatiens or begonias. But I have one circular raised bed and I tried for a few years to get that cascade of petunias around it's edges. We'll see.

GardenHo, I thought it might be a sun thing too. They are in some morning shade, but afternooon and evening sun. And the ones in the ground were in almost full sun. IDK, maybe I just cant give them the attention they need lol.

Lol mxk -I feel the same about the begonias, but I'm coming around. I have to say mine seem to do much better than my grandmother's haha. Or maybe when I was a kid I just didn't pay that much attention. I will say however that I do prefer the white over the pink - the rather muted pink ones are what Nana grew lol

:)

Dee

In the last few years I’ve purchased Proven Winners Supertunia Vista series petunias and i’ve been thrilled with their performance compared to the Wave petunias I used to buy. They do have to be trimmed back mid-season due to leggy-ness, but they don’t need to be deadheaded at all. The mini-Vistas don’t even need to be trimmed back. Both require weekly fertilization, I can’t remember what I use, maybe bloom booster or Jack’s petunia feed.

They’re in containers though, but I recall a poster named ”Ruth” from Michigan had her Vistas in the ground and they performed wonderfully for her. Gotta see if I can find one of her old threads, her gardens are gorgeous.

Anyway, here’s what mine look like so far this year, I planted them at the beginning of June. This is one Vista petunia and one Suncredible sunflower.

Edited to add that I’ve also grown to appreciate wax begonias - they’re very easy care! No pruning, no fertilizing, and they always seem to have loads of flowers. I like the pink ones! I wish the red ones were more red and less orange-red.

If you can live with pink, Proven Winners Vista Bubblegum petunias are amazing and end up looking a lot like your second picture. I grow them in the ground and in large and small pots, in full sun and < half sun, and they do great. No special care - in fact, little care at all. When the frosts come, they keep blooming until we get a solid hard freeze. Because the frost doesn't bother them, I usually plant early just to get it out of the way.

Some years I'd like to switch up the color, but from everything I've read these perform much better than even others in the Vista series.

They can be expensive, but I found a local place that sells them for a much better price than most. They spread tons too.

I like the Supertunias too. Waves aren't that great for me. This year I tried from seed some Superbissima petunias and " Balcony Mix". I think from Baker's seed but one might have been from Swallowtail.

The Superbissimas are an old variety with big, ruffly blooms with a lot of contrasting veining. They and the Balcony Mix germinated extremely well and have grown well though the Superbissimas were a little slow. Now they have really put on size. They spread about like I thought Waves should spread. They're a little rangy...guess I could try pruning them more. Have deadheaded some. They are vigorous seeming now and a good size whether in pots or in the ground. Constantly blooming so far and very intense color, and a nice variety of colors. The Balcony Mix are supposed to be old fashioned, reseeding, and fragrant. Someone in my town had some old fashioned ones that reseed all over the place and take the heat so I hoped the Balcony Mix would be like that. Will see. I don't know if either of these will keep going all summer but so far they are taking the heat.

It is nice to hear of people's trouble with various plants because in some forums it seems all you hear is bragging. There are plants that are easy for others that I find hard or impossible to grow . Echinaceas are hard for me and so far most campanulas and penstemons. I am trying peach leaved camps this year from seed and so far they seem ok with my climate.

A different petunia might be all you need, diggerdee.

Immediate snail food for me - don't grow them. The solitary callibrachoa I allowed myself didn't survive a single night.

Maybe if I did hanging baskets (but I don't cos watering nightmare).

Lovemycorgi, what a lovely combo!

Sadly, I HAVE tried Supertunias! Tried them for three years in a row! The Supertunia Vista series it was. I tried the Bubblegum, Silvery-something, white, white minis. I tried them in the ground and in containers. Nope. Pretty much the same performance as Wave petunias.

Erasmus I'm intrigued by the Superbissimas. But I find growing from seed is sooo slow for some plants (I'm looking at you, impatiens, petunias, coleus!) Do you grow with lights indoors? I wintersow, so even though I have really good success and usually get healthy seedlings that catch up quickly, I think the petunias from seed would be too slow, from getting a late start. At least, other petunias I've started from seed have been.

Has anyone tried to direct sow petunias? I'm thinking of some of the volunteers I've found in my pots some springs. I wonder if they would grow more quickly, although it seems to be that that is almost exactly the same as wintersowing....

I guess we all have things we can't grow lol! I mean, here I am, a gardener of almost 30 years, and I can't grow petunias that every gas station in town has haha! Lol maybe that's why my grandmother always had wax begonias - maybe she tried petunias for years too and it didn't work out for her either!

Thank you all, for your support, commiseration, and suggestions! I think next year it will be calibrachoa and begonias for me! With, of course, my run-of-the-mill but reliable geraniums!

:)

Dee

It's the type of petunia,not all petunias are the same. Some grow straight up, some trail and look leggy and some grow into a mounding bush like plant. Try Supertunia.

Diggerdee, I do grow them under lights. I started them pretty early, late Jan. or Feb. this year. I really just rig up my lights and sit them face down on hard plastic crates with the plants in between. I use cheap, lightweight LED ones I bought at Walmart. The cheaper ones don't get too hot. The slightly more expensive ones get hot.

The Superbissimas were not slow between germination and time to pot up in cells. They grew pretty well actually. I just thought they were slow after planting in their final homes as they kind of sat there at that point. But once they got going they were strong growers.

I haven't tried winter sowing. It's worth a try. You're could be right that they wouldn't have a long enough growing season if winter sown. But under lights they probably would. Couldn't believe how many germinated.

Those are pretty petunias, all above. Petunias look kind of delicate and thin of petal so I am surprised they hold up in heat. They're kind of thirsty I think. One of my balcony mix petunias dried up.

Thanks erasmus, for that further information. I think that's why your petunias do well, starting them early under lights. I discovered wintersowing at least 25 years ago and since then have never started another seed indoors. Never had luck indoors.

Wintersowing works great for me. The problem (if you can call it that) is that some plants need that early start. I know in my experience, impatiens, coleus, geraniums (pelargonium), and lisianthus just don't get enough of a head start with wintersowing to make it worth growing from seed. they mature and start blooming just as the season is ending. So now I just buy them (well, except those beautiful lisianthus - you can't really find those in the garden centers unfortunately)

Eh well, I think it's time to toss in the petunia towel anyway lol. For spillers in my pots I will try more of the calibrochoa, since that seems to work well for me. For edging, I'll try the wax begonias. Not sure they will work, but maybe I'm just saying that because I do believe I have never seen a begonia in the ground in my life lol, I also don't know if you can buy them in full flats (usually a bit cheaper) but I'll look around next spring and give them a try!

beesandblues that is a lovely, lovely pond! You obviously have the petunia touch!

:)

Dee

Try Catharanthus roseus for bed plantings. I think you'd like the outcome even better than petunia and its cousin, Calibrachoa. Madagascar periwinkle is far more adapted to hotter/drier conditions. It flourishes, not sulks.

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/catharanthus-roseus/

So, just coming back here to say I may have to rethink the calibrachoa. Very odd - I have used this in pots for several years with great results. And I thought the two I had this year would be the same as they were growing and looking great. Suddenly they both just up and died. One day when I went to water I noticed one looked very near death. The second one followed a few days later. The other plants in the pots still look great. Too bad as they were purple against a chartreuse sweet potato vine. Oh well...

:)

Dee

Maybe if I did hanging baskets (but I don't cos watering nightmare).

Two thumbs up on this. So glad I finally ditched "hangers" a many years ago.

Gorgeous container 'corgi'. (Am I not seeing a pattern i.e. do I recall correctly you also have a red petunia at the base of your potted "Rain Dance" clematis?)

I’ve also grown to appreciate wax begonias - they’re very easy care! No pruning, no fertilizing, and they always seem to have loads of flowers.

Ditto here! If in doubt I will plant begonias.

Here is a hard area for annuals to do well but wax begonias are up to the task. Plus part of this area gets lots of sun with another sections getting lots of shade.. (All of these were from cell packs)

Here's a quick (and rather poor quality) shot of some of mine, also all from cell packs.

Lol there's actually a dead petunia in each of those back two pots - the begonias have just filled in the space. I have them elsewhere, in pots, and they are just going gangbusters. You can see some ageratum literally trying to keep it's head above begonias lol, and even the geraniums are being outdone.

I wonder if begonias come in other colors? I've never seen them other than pink and white, but I've never looked....

:)

Dee

Begonias also come in red, different colors of pink, and pink and white bi-color (kinda like a picotee).

Well, my petunias did look good, but now they're just a bloomed-out tired mess. I trimmed they way back hoping to spur new growth, but nothing so far. They look awful. I went to nursery yesterday trying to find some replacement annuals, but I didn't find anything that would look right in that planter other than petunias, and I don't want a tired, straggly mess again in August. I might just take them out anyway, maybe the vinca will fill in better with more space and access to more sunlight (the petunias were taking over and shading out the vinca). So yea...going to have to re-think the petunias next year...sigh...

It's discouraging, mxk, isn't it? Not only does advertising make petunias seem so easy, but it seems they MUST be. Soooo many non-gardeners plop them in a pot and they look great all season. And don't even get me started on the ones in gas stations lol. I don't know. I'm just going to move on. Next year, begonias. They may not work for edging beds, but I am going to try them. Here's a few pics from today.

I had to move my pots off my patio in preparation for getting my house power-washed, and I lined a bunch of them along the front of a bed in the yard - granted the pots are higher/taller than in-ground begonias would be, and also have other things in them, but the begonias didn't look bad around the perimeter of that bed. Maybe there's hope for edging!

:)

Dee

I used to grow "Celebrity" cultivar of petunias years ago. I don't recall the Celebrity ever getting as ratty looking as the ones I have now. Yes, I had to trim them but they always bounced back quickly and beautifully. So I wonder if there's some sort of difference with the newer cultivars, like they bloom themself out or something. IDK.

Dee, I thought of you today when I saw these huge containers of petunias on the main street of the town ;). Now for sure these plants are on "steroids", likely getting liquid fertilizer each week or more.

Lol, yep, there they are, on a sidewalk in front of a business. Probably hot and sunny and car exhaust and you name it. Just like the ones at the local gas station and in front of the pharmacy lol. Oh well. I guess I will admire them when I'm out doing my errands and try something else in my own garden!

:)

Dee

You are a good sport Dee....2 thumbs up.

“Car exhaust” Lol Dee!!

The only petunias I grow are the old-fashioned "climbing" petunias:

https://www.selectseeds.com/products/old-fashioned-climbing-petunia-seeds?variant=44073361309856&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADoBB4R6YB0Ifcwuk-JfqPtCsxX0W&gclid=CjwKCAjwqf20BhBwEiwAt7dtdWqHWiwjqm2gO44k-C2e_6pENmGZ1jb2rozWkpGTSsjaE0Joe9QdcBoCMocQAvD_BwE

They don't actually climb, but have trailing stems that can be trained on a support. Essentially trouble free, excellent evening/night fragrance and they self-sow.

I did pick up 3 red Califrachoas on sale a few weeks ago. So far, so good.

rusty_blackhaw that is so interesting! On two counts, one, the flowers look cool, and two, I get and pretty completely peruse Select Seeds' catalog every year and don't think I ever noticed these. I will have to pay more attention!

:)

Dee

Dee, I thought of this post when my husband and I stopped at Culver’s (fast food restaurant) for lunch today. They had at least a dozen stunning petunia planters, looking so lush and abundant I could hardly believe my eyes. At a fast food restaurant!!! Why don’t mine ever look this good? 🤪

LOL lovemycorgi, yours don't look as good because you live in a house, not in a fast-food restaurant, or a gas station, or a supermarket... hahaha!

I'm telling you, people think I'm exaggerating when I say how great petunias look in these places, compared to mine, but I bet if we all went on our errands about town and actively looked for petunia plantings, it would prove my point!

These petunias are often in hot, dry, sunny locations, often neglected, get stepped on by humans, peed on by dogs, have cigarette butts thrown in amongst them, are surrounded by cars and trucks and their exhaust, get run over by shopping carts - and they look great lol. It's beyond me lol.

:)

Dee

Love petunias. They are my go to annual. They are deer candy though

Hey Dee, for good or for bad, now whenever I see a "struggling" petunia I think of @diggerdee zone 6 CT ;)

So you were on my mind yesterday ;) as I ditched my first container (a petunia and a grass....now in the compost bin).

You can see where the deer munch them

Dee, this year and last, I was very disappointed with annuals I bought and planted. They just didn't perform at all. Two theories....like Rouge has pointed out, at the nursery they've probably been getting super duper liquid fertilizer and are used to that and anything less and they aren't happy. I use organic fertilizers.

And two, a lot of times I don't buy potted plants early in the season, I might get them after I've got my garden where I want it for the season and see where I might need a little extra. So maybe the plants have been growing in the pots too long? I do rough up the root ball when I plant, but .... for whatever reason, this year I've decided to save my money from now on. If I can't start them myself then plan on not using them. I don't buy a lot of potted plants anyway, so it won't be a big adjustment for me.

PM2 I do start a lot of annuals by seed myself, but I find that the things I like to use for pots are too slow - I don't use lights or a have a greenhouse, and as you probably know I start all my seeds by wintersowing. This makes it more difficult to do things like impatiens, petunias, geraniums. I've tried them all and they just take too long to get up to speed in time for my patio pots. So I start most annuals for cutting or the garden beds and buy my annuals for pots.

I've actually had fairly good luck this year with them - aside from the petunias lol! My impatiens have done *okay*. Not spectacular, not awful. Again, oddly, all from the same batch but some are doing great and others are not so hot. But overall, they are okay. Begonias have been spectacular, even if they are now getting a bit leggy. Will have to look into the possibility of shearing them back a bit.

Double impatiens are going gangbusters. Only bought two soft pink ones but they have completely crowded out the ageratum and even a geranium in the long planter they are in. Love them!

Geraniums, sweet potato vine, calibrochoa, and coleus are all doing quite well too. So overall I am satisfied with my nursery-grown annuals this year. Except the petunias. LOL

L Clark, love those petunias - I like that frilly kind of edge they have. I would ask what they are but lol they won't grow for me anyway so I won't bother!

rouge, happy to hear you think of me - even if it IS when you see a dead petunia haha!

:)

Dee

Dee, It’s been awhile since I started any seeds indoors, but I can relate to what you are saying. What I like to grow is never easy to start from seed for one reason or another and sometimes I just need easy..lol. And I always start under lights - I have to, I just don’t have the right conditions in the house to start them any other way. And I haven’t done winter sowing in awhile either, although I enjoyed it when I did it.

Have you had much luck growing annuals from cuttings?

I have always had good luck with Begonias. I haven’t bought the double impatiens in a long time. I would like to try them.

So since the annuals you bought at the nursery did well for you, what do you account for that? Did you buy them early when they were still actively growing and not pot bound? How did you fertilize them?

Dee, It’s been awhile since I started any seeds indoors, but I can relate to what you are saying. What I like to grow is never easy to start from seed for one reason or another and sometimes I just need easy..lol. And I always start under lights - I have to, I just don’t have the right conditions in the house to start them any other way. And I haven’t done winter sowing in awhile either, although I enjoyed it when I did it.

Have you had much luck growing annuals from cuttings?

I have always had good luck with Begonias. I haven’t bought the double impatiens in a long time. I would like to try them.

So since the annuals you bought at the nursery did well for you, what do you account for that? Did you buy them early when they were still actively growing and not pot bound? How did you fertilize them?

I have become far less enchanted with ANY annuals in pots. Reviewing mine (stuff like maurandya, helipterum, cistanthe. clary sage, coreopsis, crepis)...I have found them all to be either sparse, tendency to fall over, just generally irritating...whereas the ones which are self-sown or direct sown in the ground are much better...but still, I am just not inclined to spend much more time and effort on sowing annuals which stay in pots. I am trying to keep pot culture for small perennials or tender perennials which get better every year, even though there is the annual crapshoot of winter survival.

I know this is a bit weird, given the £££ I spend on often futile seeds or plants, but I simply cannot bring myself to buy plug plants of bedding plants, only to throw them away in autumn. Both of my neighbours do this and often seem to grow lush pots of colour...but I dunno, impatiens, petunias, lobelia, diascia et al,...I can't seem to make an emotional connection with them. Maybe they just don't hang around long enough...or they all seem a bit...dumpy,

I get conflicted every year...but so far, this is the first year I have not consistently foraged for seeds because there is JUST NO MORE ROOM for pots with short-lived and often unsatisfying annuals. I haven't ordered any annual seeds either...although the seed sowing season is only at the very beginning.

I agree somewhat with you that many of the "usual suspects" for annual pots are on the boring side. Not through any fault of their own, but more because of overuse - it's always the same old, same old that is available at most garden centers and nurseries. I suppose there is a reason for that (perhaps most average homeowners are not really gardeners and just want some easy color to spruce up entryways and back porches etc.)

That being said, I too want somewhat reliable color on my back patio lol. While I have almost an acre, and while there are about 40 trees on my lot (dwindling from about 50 over the years due to loss) my back patio area is drab and rather uninviting, and VERY hot and sunny (i.e uncomfortable) half the day. The patio itself is large, and then it is surrounded by the driveway (to my back in the photo below) and then a huge expanse of asphalt to the right in the photo below - enough space to park and back up and turn 4 cars. While it is in shade a good third of the day, which helps the general mood, it is in desperate need of color and softness, and so that is why I do pots of annuals. (pay no attention to the ratty cellar doors or the broken pavers, lol - they're on the list of repairs!)

I too hate the thought of tossing annuals, but luckily for me they're mostly dead by the end of the season haha! No, but seriously, that is one reason why I don't do "seasonal" pots. I am constantly in envy of the houses I drive by who change out their pots and window boxes and mailbox plantings by season, going from pansies in spring, to summer annuals, to gorgeous fall plantings of kale and mums and (more) pansies, etc. They are beautiful and I want them lol. But I can't bring myself to rip out perfectly good annuals to replace them with something more seasonal. I suppose I could just use more pots and change out the pots, but then there is the expense as well. So I leave my pots till almost November when the last poor solitary bloom is gasping for breath, and then I toss them!

I figure (and I tell myself this every spring when I'm forking over the increasing amounts of money for those annuals!) I figure if I can get six or more months of enjoyment out of $200 worth of annuals, it's well worth it. Even if it's not the most exciting enjoyment lol!

:)

Dee

P.S. Okay, after exposing myself to judgment over my drab patio, lol, I had to add another picture of the other end, to show that I really AM trying to soften it up a bit and make it more inviting! Here is the end of the patio behind my back in the photo above. Zephrine Drouin with Rooguchi clematis:

Although as much as I love my zephies, I will most likely be replacing them with something less prone to blackspot. They look great in spring (above) but the rest of the year are pretty much just sticks!

"I know this is a bit weird, given the £££ I spend on often futile seeds or plants, but I simply cannot bring myself to buy plug plants of bedding plants, only to throw them away in autumn."

In my climate, we do not garden year-round. Where I am, spring bloomers don't start blooming until mid-April at the earliest here (crocus is the exception for me), and unless you've got some really late season bloomers like Ajania, we're done in October; even the colorful tree foliage has dropped by the end of October and the bushes are stripped of their colorful berries by mid-winter.

So, late spring and summer is "high season" here -- and we want color color COLOR and greenery, we're starved of it for 6 months. So growing under lights in winter and/or dropping $$$ is what we do for the joy it brings us for the 6 months of it we have.

Yes, 6 months of downtime is a lot, mxk3. I am aware that in more temperate zones, gardening has a long season - from mid November, the growing calendar swings around until late February. Winter gardening is a 'thing' here, with much use of osiers, dogwoods, rubus...and very early bulbs. I think my main joy derives from the growing of plants, with far less emphasis on the 'finished' projects (which is why I am often to be found in a state of envious confusion).

It is true that I tend to grow annuals which really need to be grown in generous groups/drifts/mass plantings- best achieved by dense direct sowing from seed. I would be much happier to splash the cash if I could be certain that the results would justify the expense...but, I dunno, I am choosing the wrong plants or something, because I really have not been happy with my potted annuals...although there have been some surprising successes such as nemesia...which grows as a perennial in my zone, and, performs across a long and changeable season, with little more than regular clipping.

Dee, my bulkhead doesn't look any better....lol. On the list of repairs which is too long. It looks like you have a courtyard there. So does that create shade for any pots you're trying to grow there? I wonder if you ever considered using raised standing beds to grow some herbs or veggies close to the kitchen door, where the rabbits can't get at them?

I bought one this spring and liked it enough to get another one. Definitely keeps the rabbits out of it, which is really what I need. Right now I am growing Microgreens for quick crops for my smoothies. This is the one I have....

Raised Bed

And I really like your herringbone brick patio. Just needs a couple of missing bricks. Looks pretty stable.

PM2, this patio is actually hard to grow on, in terms of light. It gets morning shade over most of it (the back door is always in sun) and then the house shades it later in the day. In between (from like noon to 5ish) is full, hot, hot, hot sun. In the photo you can see a wall to the right of the door, with a trellis leaning on it. This is the garage wall, and I have tried for years to grow stuff on that trellis but it always is too hot. I had some success with thunbergia, and the only reason it's not on that trellis this year is because we had the house and patio powerwashed so I didn't bother putting it on the trellis. But even that doesn't really thrive. It just kind of exists lol.

And actually, I do have a pot of herbs that normally resides on the patio (hadn't been moved back yet after the powerwashing). I have chives, lemon thyme and then usually put some parsley, rosemary, and basil in it. We have larger patches of parsley and basil out in the garden as well.

I also finally got an umbrella for my patio table. We have debated for years about getting one of those semi-permanent tents or canopies (can't think of the name offhand - the fabric ones that open and close to keep out bugs, etc.) but we really love looking up at the trees - they are like the arches of a cathedral- so beautiful. So we nixed that idea but i do like the umbrella and often keep it up. It helps shade the patio just a bit and maybe I'm delusional but I hope it helps keep it a bit cooler as well. I would love a retractable awning but there is no space to install one on the house.

What I would REALLY love is a pergola, but with the layout of the house, the patio, the driveway, and the septic, I don't think there's a good way to put one in. Plus I don't have the money for that right now anyway.

I am thinking of putting some of those raised beds like you have on the side of my house. There is an area of about 8 feet wide from my house to where the cars pass by the house in the driveway. That area is paved (I guess they just paved over the whole thing when they put in the driveway) and it is mostly sunny and of course has the foundational heat. I use it now for my wintersowing and keeping plants till I get them in the ground. I would love to put that area to use to grow more permanent plantings. Sigh, it's all in the master plan lol. One agonizingly small step at a time lol!

:)

Dee