I had that same experience this year. A beautiful, lush, red million bells that I cut back about a month ago is now the sorriest looking thing I've ever seen. Brown, dried up leaves and stems. It's in a pot and was doing very well. Now I've relegated it to the back. In my zone it probably won't recover before the first frost sets in.
Jacquie

I have no proof but am basing this on observation the last two years. Certain strains of them seem to do much better than others with pruning, and certain strains do much better with just plain old growth and vigour.

I grew the Callie line this year and had to prune back baskets twice. The variegated ones (along the same lines as terra cotta) came bouncing back as strong as ever. The pendulous blue ones were great as well. The red ones never seemed to get off the ground. I had the same experience with differences last year when I grew the million bells line in that some whole lots did better than others.

Had one plant overwinter in a hanging basket. It was leggy. Cut it back in early spring. It is doing fine.

Have 2 others. One in a big clay pot. The terra-cotta colored flowers go real good with my tan/yellow coleus. See no need to cut back. The other (a stunning red) is planted in a big plastic sombrero type pot (I think the "pot" is actually some sort of telephone company property used to carry wire or something...it's definitely not horticultural, or it wasn't before I customized it). The "pot" is deep and wide. The million bells are planted with black dragon coleus. I used a soil mixture composed of potting soil, vermiculite & perlite so this pot stays wet. The million bells is growing quite well. Again, see no need to cut back.

BONUS container growing combination: try black dragon coleus with tricolor amaranth. Very sharp!

I had chosen million bells / calibrachoa b/c I understood that it likes to get a little dry (these were hanging baskets in full sun), which fit in well with my ability (or lack thereof!) to water everything 1-2x/day every day.

Well, I learned that mine really DON'T like to get too dry -- there seems to be a very fine line between just dry enough and too dry. Next year I'll be planting them with moisture crystals for a little extra insurance. I thinned out the dead stuff (not a complete haircut, just trimming here and there) and they did bounce back with new growth and more blooms.

I also found a HUGE difference between colors, even in the same line. I had three whites and three pinks alternating in front of the picture window, all getting the same exact light, wind, water, food, etc. My whites got really scraggly, but the pinks did just fine!

I bouht a beautiful huge 2 tone purple, and 2 tone pink all same basket. Most beautiful thing I have ever seen for about a month. It is still blooming but the blooms are not as many or as big, and it is very leggy and lots of dead leaves. What am I doing wrong? I planted it in miricle grow soil and water every day. Please help I want my plant back. I never got to take a picture. Thank You, Paula

Thanks for the information. I have also been having problems with these plants. I find that the whites seem to do better, but could not work out why they seem to suddenly die. I think that the root ball needs to be moist as the ones that have died have all been dry when I pulled them out, so even though I watered them they had dried out. I will try the pinching method for pruning to see if that makes a difference, although I have trimmed some with shears and they have grown fine in the garden. I have replaced about 6 to 8 plants in my garden that have suddenly died for no reason.

These plants are a disaster its all marketing hype. They just dont grow in gardens. Much like the earlier petunias that that couldn't, most petunias still wont but they have better virus resistant strains now at least. The only way for success is to use fungicide, under-watering and climate, soil, fertiliser control under glass like they're produced by growers. They like light but not heat or humidity, they hate getting wet foliage, they collapse with PH changes, even small ones, they get viruses and fungus and mould problems outdoors almost instantly, they like absolute free drainage and will die if the soil is wet for longer than an hour, they will also die if allowed to dry out, impossible to revive after they collapsed, and they collapse with the slightest change in producer conditions in the green house they came from. Dont waste your money. The internet is full of the same story, a completely useless plant that growers have been hyping at our expense.

I have been happy with this plant in humid New Jersey. Now I have been growing them in wire hanging baskets so maybe it is a reflection of the drainage. They have done GREAT in these baskets but I have not grown them in the ground.

Kansas is obviously a lot different from the "wet tropical subtropics". I have seen Calibrachoas thrive in hanging baskets for months at a time, producing literally hundreds of blooms while hanging well below the basket. There is now a Calibrachoa X Petunia hybrid available. If I had been thinking about moving to the "wet tropical subtropics", this would change my mind about that. Now I wonder if zinnias do well there.

ZM

What season are you growing these Calibrachoa hybrids in? Are your hanging baskets covered by a roof or any other structure? Etc, it is possible but unfortunately they just aren't weather proof for most garden situations, even containers. No matter where you live. They dont like to be crowded by other plants as air circulation is of life threatening importance because of the plethora of moulds and fungus and root pathogens they are susceptible to. So cannot even be used in mixed plantings, surely they will die as the other plants cannot survive without regular water.

Those marketing these plants have been changing the goal posts for consumers ever since these things first appeared. The perfect, easy, self cleaning, heat loving garden plant tough as boots, is suddenly now only for containers with complete protection, perfect PH, in temperate climates with no rain and clear blue skies indefinitely and vitally timed applications of chemical ..........of course consumers have been buying them by the "millions" because of the hype and are having disastrous results. It's fraud plain and simple. We wouldn't buy fruit that you couldn't eat and it's in fact illegal to sell fruit in many countries that wont ripen once picked or is an unsatisfactory cultivar. Consumers don't seem to get the same protection with plants and producers can say anything.

What is interesting is to read the sites on the net for producers, mostly PDF files, they explain how to grow on the plugs to sell to retailers. It's not easy! Not at all. Some even say as much. They are susceptible to almost every pathogen known to infect plants in production. Growers have to rely heavily on chemical solutions many which are not (even if they were environmentally friendly) available to home growers. They aren't however environmentally friendly and it's irresponsible to create a demand for their usage. Even if we all were sloshing nasty chemicals all over the place the plants are again critically sensitive to dosage, type and timing of application.

Without a doubt it is true that the production of bedding plants generally are a nightmare of chemical pollution already. Treated as throw away plants after and the environmental footprint left behind is completely unacceptable.

Without diminishing your success you might just have benefited from recent heavy or specific grower applications of chemicals, hormones etc long enough to get some results in a very protected site.

I've even resorted to umbrellas to keep them dry, they just cannot take average normal wet conditions, whether from passing rain or watering. Establishing them in the ground is impossible. I've had only very limited success using almost pure acidic sand. Whatever you do even in containers, with the right PH If you plant three two will die almost immediately. One might or might not persist but never ever the "all Spring and Summer long" rubbish they tell consumers.

Here's the thing, these are sold and bred as bedding and container plants, the things you stick in anywhere in full sun for instant colour that flower themselves to death with minimal care. However they are in fact a highly specialised plant to grow, best suited for green house conditions, however the effort for such a short lived woody plant makes that not terribly rewarding either. They hate disturbance as well so transplanting is almost impossible even from pot to container.

These are hybrids of many species of Calibrachoa (lovely name) and as such one would expect some kind of almost manic hybrid vigour. Unfortunately it seems the aggregate of the species is even more difficult than the individual species to grow as a result of all this breeder effort.

Zen_man we have a long dry sunny cool season the "sub-tropical" part. This would be much like a British summer without the rain. I have been trying in this season as well but we do get the odd wet week or two which is their undoing.

Grower instruction for producers say the temps should be kept from 13 - 23 %C, I suppose that means cooler nights, for best growth. However if wet and cool for fractionaly too long they are a goner so are very difficut to establish when transplanting as wilt is a big issue kept dry or watered in any season. Yes humidity and heat together is also a killer.

I suspect you've seen plants straight out of production environment or plants replaced etc or and you have a month or two of perfect conditions and the plants were left as they were bought in their pots. You can buy them very big. Or its new variety we dont get yet.

Yes there are also now seeds available too. Before there was very tight control (max profit) and producers could only get plugs of cutting grown sterile plants which were very difficult to produce. Seed could make things easier.

We grow lovely things in "winter", snap dragons, nasturtiums, violets, marigolds anything temperate in fact and including Zinnias, Cleomie, Impatiens, the list is endless even sweet-peas, petunias any of the high UK summer annuals. I would say our winter should be ideal for Calibrachoas but Calibrachoas are not ideal for anything.

Bear in mind these plants are sold worldwide, not just in America. I see there are claims that there are now "weather proof" types and annual types rather than the semi-woody little shrub things that suffer so badly so who knows, maybe there are better ones around now too. The "million bells" fiasco is maybe a thing of the past, I will be delighted but also very surprised if its true and not just more marketing hype.

Makes you think. If they're claiming new, now "weather proof" varieties, what were the ones they sold us by the millions that all died so spectacularily in our gardens. Why were they being sold to us and hyped as the easiest thing with a flower. Surely a bog standard trial before release onto the market would've told them they were duping the consumer by bringing them onto the market at that stage? Anyway I would love to try from seed, just have a feeling that it's easier, sown in situ. Will have to order some of the new "weather proof" annual seed if available to home growers. Honestly aren't all plants meant to be weather proof, at least garden worthy, we don't rush out an buy the latest green-house annual, its meant to be normal weather resistant. Crickey!!! As the Australians say. "Weather" is here to stay, it never went anywhere.

I am in zone 9 and have had good luck growing them in a selfwatering planter with my blueberries.....100% pine fines. I think well drained soil is the key...Maybe acidity too?

I gave up on them years ago--they never looked really good no matter where I put them and I tried containers as well as in ground.