the collected seeds.. may or may not be the fancy flower you took them from ... and some fancy flowers are actually sterile ... so good luck with your seed... it should be exciting to find out what you end up with ... you made it this far thru winter.. i dont know why you would give up on the plant now... just make sure to harden it off to sunlight.. once you take it out of its cave .. lol ken

Probably watering it too much....or not enough. Is there paper around the pot? Is there a drain hole in the pot? Could there be water sitting in the bottom of the pot? Linda C

I'm not sure what you're looking at, but I don't see anything in those pictures that remotely resembles flea beetles. Nor is that the sort of damage I expect from flea beetles. Flea beatles are tiny things that hop around like fleas (hence the name) and they leave tiny holes peppershot all over the foliage of plants, like lacework. They do not swarm per se, though you will usually not see just one or two flea beetles. They are also about the size of a small flea. If you have flea beetles, I wouldn't expect them to be visible in a picture of that resolution. They're tiny and fast. Regardless, get some neem and spray whatever it is away. You're not going to hurt butterflies or bees with it. Neem is actually used in hive management by beekeepers to control mite infestations in the hive. Just a foliar spray will do the job - you don't need to spray the bug itself. Neem isn't really a contact poison. If the bugs are eating the leaves or flowers or any other part of the plant, that'll most likely take care of them.

Yup, I keep mine in the basement until January. We have a small room under our front steps, it's all cement and stays pretty cool. They get very little light if any down there. Usually all the leaves will brown and die off, they seem to go dormant. New growth comes back in January when I bring them to a sunny window or put them under lights (and start watering regularily again). I do water them sparingly after I pot them up, this is usually in early to mid-October. After they get moved down to the basement though I pretty much forget about them until January. I suspect you could keep them as houseplants, but I am terrible with those so I don't bother trying to keep them green all winter. I do the same thing with my geraniums (the annual ones-I know they have a different name but I can never remember it!).