I don't often do the green house thing...because unless you know it's in DEEP shade it can fry the plants. The one exception is I will sometimes put my pearlite and sand into an aluminum dis[posable cake tin, dampen the mix and put the whole thing in a plastic bag with some small holes punched in it and hang from a tree. If you hang close to the branches it won't get any sun and hanging it keeps the plastic off of the plants....but it looks awful and people wonder why you have this plastic covered cake pan hanging in your tree.... But it works! Linda C

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.

Many nursery's down here use 3 plants to a 10 or 12 inch hanging basket should be full in 8 to 10 weeks with four inch maybe a little less. Happy Growing David

Has anyone tried WS million bells? Do they come back true from seed...... as far as color, etc? Much thanks!