propagating petunias?

What is the best way to propagate them from cuttings?

I found this site.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7557744_start-petunia-cuttings.html

Don

I would try rooting one of the vines right in the ground. Just lay it on the ground and make sure you cover part of it with dirt. Probably wouldn't take very long to root and then you move it. You could make 4 or 5 new plants if you wanted with practically no work--just a little good dirt.

Thanks, I think I will try both ways!

OK, what worked the best for you? And what did not work at all?

I have a white petunia still alive out there. I took some cuttings and inserted them into a soil-less mix, watered them thoroughly, and pressed the soil deeply into the container around the stems. I have read that they root so easily. I didn't read anything on how to. I didn't use any hormone powder. Maybe I should have, but the current cuttings seem to be doing fairly well. Time will tell. Any other luck with propagating petunias?

I'll be starting some from seed in January and February. They take a very long time from seed and need heat. I have one petunia left in my garden, a pretty purple one. I should dig it up before we get a hard frost and take cuttings of it as well. All the other petunias have been pulled up as they either got frosted or not enough water. This year is very different from last year as we had many storms by now. We have had a wind storm and some sprinkles and just a dusting of snow. We need more water or CA will be in drought again.

Interesting. I have never tried petunias from cuttings, but have done well with seed. I take seed each year from my petunias and then in early spring, just throw the seed into the dirt/container where I want them to grow.

Will petunias winter over? I thought they were true annuals?

They are perennial in a frost-free environment, but usually do not look so good after a year. Once we have a hard frost, it will be gone, if I do not dig it up first. It looked the best of all the other petunias as well.

I will knock on the wood of my desk as I write this:

My cuttings from the white petunia are still looking tall and green and lively.

The black petunia I dug up and brought in looks very healthy.

The black petunia root stock that I took up just before the hard frost is still green, and I dare say there may be a green leaf forming at the base of one stem.

I kept a pink petunia on a shelf next to the kitchen window all winter and it bloomed prettily. I planted it in a container outside in spring/summer and it survived just like that and bloomed very nicely.

I just love them, and I am experimenting. I think the results of my trials are very encouraging. :)

Great news, Amanda! Please let us know how long they will actually last. I know I have had some plants as annuals live over, but usually the hardy ones, like calendulas. I take it that you are keeping your petunias indoors during winter...??

Ev - yes the petunias are inside. Last winter we were amazed that one of our calendulas lived thru and bloomed the entire winter (even under snow). What's up with that!?

Yes, they are much hardier than petunias and they prefer the cooler season. Even so, mine bloomed all year from the time I transplanted themas this year I raised them from seed. When I ran out of deer repellant, then everything outside of the fenced yard got chewed, well almost anyway. Not looking so good. I just pulled off a bloom on that darn petunia. I think I will dig it up in a few days or so and bring it to winter inside. It is such a pretty little thing. I might actually feed it, too. In the ground they get lots of compost, but really could use some "bloom" feed. Do you feed yours in winter? I thought they might like a rest...and then start in the spring. What do you do?

I just do not have a lot of space. I have to be creative even in my winter-sowing and my indoor seed-starting. I have a couple of shelves in my bedroom and two lighted shelves in the basement, where it is much cooler. I keep the heat mats here in my room, so I can better supervise them and make sure the temps are right. I now have some thermostats, though last year I did not use them and I think they got too dry as I am so carefull not to overwater.

It is good to sow calendulas every month. That is how they got their name for - calendar...blooming every month of the year.

I am def. bringing in my pricey black and black/yellow petunias next year, and maybe a pot of calendula, they are one of my favorite plants. So easy, you can eat the petals, they reseed, and they are such a cheerful yellow.

Celene - I have received in trade but never seen the orange pot marigold - has anyone seen it? I do love the yellow, but I will sow some of this yellow/orange as well. Ev - thanks for the cultural history of the calendula. I had never heard that, but I guess if you keep sowing them you will have blooms all year round. We were amazed last winter. I had no idea they were so hardy.

I have quite a few plants that look "hungry" but not sure - maybe I will make a very dilute mix of plant food. I do not feed, but I'm not really keen on the soil mix they are potted in in terms of nutrition. I wish I had some Schultz liquid fertilizer - I used it for a very long time, but I stopped buying it at some point when I gave up house plants in favor (!?) of cats. The cats seem too old now to mess with my plants much, so maybe it's time to re-invest in plant food.

A

I have the yellow calendulas as well - orange would be nice.....

Typically I just take the seeds from my petunias and then sow them outside in early May..... I do have some that have continually reseeded themselves as well. Not sure if the specialty ones - such as the black toonies would came back true from seed.

I don't know if the black petunias will come back, but I'm gonna find out ;)

The black petunias I got at the end of the season did show a bit of a yellow stripe in the center on one of the plants. I wonder what they would look like from seed - but the black petunia is new on the market so I'm sure they'll be monkeying with it until they get it right.

I saw a photo on the website of the company that introduced it (can't remember which) with it planted in a giant container with 'Diamond Frost' Euphorbia. So of course that's what I planted with mine out back, and I brought 2 of the euphorbia in together with the petunias. The euphorbia are doing amazingly well and blooming continuously. Silly me, I even dug up an ageratum which is blooming for me indoors. I hate to let these beauties go to the frost, and every year I bring more and more inside.

My front room is full of Alternanthera, begonias, a lantana or two, celosia, ferns . ... I have plants and cuttings all over. I guess since I joined DG last March I have gotten more adventuresome and just enjoying the indoor plants. I'm appreciative because I had stopped growing indoor plants a bunch of years ago, tired of the cats eating them and pukking them up. :D

I always deadhead my petunias and don't collect seed. This past season was the first I ever experienced a self-sowed flower. It showed up - a giant hardy white - I think it may still be alive out there - where I had planted a purple and white striped petunia the year before.

A.

I'm definitely going to try and overwinter the fancy petunias. P. integrifolia just reseeds, I just break pods open into the same hanging baskets where they grow every year, throw in some tricolor ipomoea and they're beautiful.

I overwinter some of the other pricey annuals...perilla, helichrysum, all kinds of plectranthus (I love those), impatiens, coleus, etc. I try to ovewinter ipomoeas with limited success.

Well my petunia usually over winter but they do not survive the little green worms. I am going to spay neem on every plant that had those cute little green worms that eat the all the blooms.

I dead head mine also because if I do not they stop blooming. I did have two waves that bloomed all summer in our direct sun. I had one wave get stringy and I buried the stems and they re-rooted.

I got nothing done today because I caught DH's cold. I do not think it is going to be as bad as his was.

Have a great evening. I will check in tomorrow. Sharon

I have been pretty fortunate with my cuttings so far, but I am seeing quite a few gnats or fruit flies these days.

Sharon feel better.

A.

Several years ago I bought a 'Tidal Wave' petunia at Lowe's. I grew it in a pot in the driveway, and it flowered nonstop, with NO deadheading, until December. It got about 2x3 feet! Just before bad weather, I picked a bouquet of whatever was still blooming, including a few sprigs of petunia. I put it on my sunny south window (well, Seattle in winter can't really be called sunny). Darned if they didn't root in the vase! I lost a few over the winter, they looked like I should fertilize them but I never did. In the spring I potted them up, and had more Tidal Waves that year! I did it again that fall, but the next year I left it until too late. So...just give it a try, obviously at least some petunias are not bloom-seed-die annuals.

Yarrgh. I lost one - the black petunia I had potted up and brought inside.

Now my cuttings some of them are looking iffy.

This IS the time of year when it happens, though. Light increases and plant needs more/less water and those tender "iffy" plants are the first to go. :/

Keep trying!
A.

Wow! Good to know. I have never tried to root petunias in water.....

I am going to spray any petunia I plant this year with Neem. I always get those little green worms that eat each flower.

AmandaEsq, last year I sprinkled cinnamon on the soil of all my seedlings to get rid of the gnats. It worked like a charm. Whenever I would start to see one or two I'd refresh the cinnamon and that took care of it. last year my planting was very ambitious... I went through a lot of cinnamon...

Pam

Pam, what a great reminder. I will have my cinnamon bottle ready. I saw a couple of nats last night.

Thanks, Marie

Yes - thanks - I continue to learn here. :)

Last year I bought a tray of wave petunias from Costco. I repotted them into 1 gal pots and placed in green house until they began to grow. Then I took tip cuttings, used rooting hormone, and doubled my number of waves. Worked well, so will try again this year. This is economical because of the low cost of full size plants at Costco vs the cost of wave seeds, not to mention the time to actually grow from seed. I am using both methods this year.

I have also learned not to start plants from seeds too early in the season. I just end up with way too many plants to try to hold in the greenhouse until the weather turns. Setting them out mid May (our last frost date) just turns them into slug food. So - I aim for having plants ready for transplant into the garden sometime around June 1 for our climate in the Northwest. Last year was a very wet spring, so planting late was even more advantageous than normal.

I am just now starting to plant my seeds in batches, depending on germination times. I am using the Park Biodome system, and many seeds will germinate in just days at a very high germination rate. This system works very well - my lettuce germinated in two days, spent a week under grow lites, and went into 4 inch pots in about 10 days. Those pots are now in the green house and will be planted out the first week of April, under frost banket.

Let the sun shine.

Larry ~ You had better watch out for the plant police, as the Wave petunias are under patent. (No vegetative propagation permitted.) They will find you, now that you have admitted your crime!

Whaddya' think, Amanda?

O my goodness, Evelyn. My lips are sealed!!! :O