I live in the Texas panhandle. Last year, I had 2 half-whiskey barrels full of white, red and white striped, lavender, dark purple, dark purple and white striped, light pink, dark pink and red Petunias which grew like crazy in the barrels. By late September, they were looking pretty leggy, dried up and sad. I pulled all of the dead plants up by mid-October. In April this year, I planted all my other big planters with beautiful uniquely shaped and striped Petunias from Sutherlands...not the same ones you get at Home Depot or Lowes. Well, the Sutherland Petunias grew like crazy and multiplied over and over. I still wasn't sure what to do with the whiskey barrels that I had those old previous year Petunias growing in so I just left them empty. In late May or early June, I start seeing little plant leaves popping up out of the bare potting soil. I thought...hmmm....could be weeds, but maybe not, I will just let them grow and see. SO glad I did. Both barrels begin to totally fill up with flowers from last year's Petunia seeds. What made it nice was the fact that I had brand NEW Petunias which were just getting started and spreading like wildfire in the barrels, while the Petunias I had planted 2 months before in other planters were getting leggy, but still filling and running over my huge containers with flowers. Thus, while the other (the ones I planted in April this year) ones were getting tired, I had new ones full of new flowers from last year's Petunia seeds in my barrels. Sooo, the point is, which has been my own personal experience, yes, even if you pull the OLD Petunia plants out, there should be new ones sprrouting in their place...but just in early summer, not early spring. Maybe it's the climate here in the panhandle (freezes and snows here in winter..gets in the single digits here sometimes). I had lived on the Gulf Coast previously, and I always pulled the old Petunias up in late fall, and I always thought those little sprouts coming back in early summer were weeds. They were new Petunia sproutlings all along. So patience...give the so-called weed time to grow for awhile.

The pelletized petunia seeds I've bought have been one seed per pellet (how they manage to do that with those teeny seeds is beyond me). So, if they say 10 seeds, that's what you'll get. Maybe someone else has had a different experience (?). As for Laura Bush - sow 'em once and you'll never have to sow them again. I sowed my first Lauras 3 years ago, and I have them every year. Good luck! I LUV petunias! PV

ontheteam I use Dave's often I like robs plants also great pics. I'm going to the RI flower show tomorrow morning w/ friends how was it? i gave one of my good friends a ws set up for X-mass. Prepped & filled a milk & soda bottle for her along w/ tags,paint pen,tape and seeds is fun to have garden buddies whenever we stop by each others houses we end up digging something up for the other. That is quite a list!! Annette

PV, now that's funny, too close to the ozone hole. I'm still saying there is something in the air that is affecting the zinnias all over the country. People in washington state, ohio, texas, and more, all saying the same thing and the same strange results with zinnias. Either they are doing nothing or blooming on short stems not the tall that they are supposed to be, flowering is weird and small and the seeds are commercial packets. Gave up on the profusion last year, after 3 years of really dud growth. My only ones that are growing the way they should are the zowie flame, they are beautiful and my zinnia old mexico, burpee seeds. They are blooming with several different looking flowers and all much smaller than they are supposed to be with flower bloom. My zinnia thumbelina are the height they are supposed to be, but are looking like the sickest pups on earth. A neighbor took all of hers and stuffed them into good size pots with miracle grow potting mix. Got to get over there at some point and get some pics. I WS seeds for her and she too her containers to plant up. 30 seedlings in each container and she stuffed them in the pots. Now that's a total of 60 seedlings she had from a burpee packet of mixed colors. All she has is a beautiful fushia, 55 with all the same color and 5 seedlings with this beautiful bright orange. Now are the plants 6 inches tall like they are supposed to be? No way, at least a foot tall and the flower is about 2 inches. I'm digging out my sick pups, oops, gonna have someone do it for me, can't get down on the ground for a while and all mine are going in a big pot. Maybe those sickly looking plants and even sicker cream color, and bleached out shade of pale pink will look better stuffed in a pot with a bunch of other colors. And no, i don't have 1 fushia one out of 45 plants and don't have one bright orange one either. I've found that named petunia seedlings don't do well for me, not much bloom from them, but when I just collect seeds from whatever ones are around and WS them, you see what I get every time. Wonder if you did get a bad bag of MG soil. Is it just the plain one or the one with the moisture control? I've found the moisture control one either holds too much water or not enough. This year we've had a mandatory water ban going. I can only water ever other day and if caught watering on the wrong day, it's a $100 fine. So to be safe I bought a bag of the moisture control and mixed in about 1/3 of the moisture control with the regular MG mix. seems to be working out well for me with the pots in the front. No one can see me watering in the back of my house so my toms get watered every day. You could try adding some fertilizer to those pots that aren't growing well, and i'd give the MG people a call about it. A few years ago, a friend had the same complaint and called them. They where very nice about it, sent her a refund on the price of the bag she used and a coupons for 4 free 2 cubic foot bags of MG potting mix. Got nothing to lose by calling and letting them now that you had a problem with the soil that you bought. It could be there was a problem with a batch and unless they are told about the problem, they might never know. Good luck Fran