Michelle65, sorry, but I have to dispute most of your claims. First of all, Wave petunias are spreading petunias, not the other way around. Spreading (Supertunia series, Surfinia series, etc.) petunias grown from cuttings have been around for decades. The Wave series (introduced in 1995) was the first commercially successful spreading petunia that was propagated from seed. Your statement that "the ones that say spreading petunia is the exact same this without the pink pot" is entirely erroneous, as is your statement "greenhouse have only been able to buy Wave seeds for the past couple of years". You should also know that there are FOUR separate divisions of Wave petunias. Actually 5 if you include the vegetatively propagated DOUBLE Waves. Wave, Easy Wave, Tidal Wave and Shock Wave all have very distinctly different growth habits. Are you paying extra for the pink pot? Absolutely. If it is in the pink pot and says Wave on it, it is required to be a Wave petunia, however that is entirely up to the distributor if they want them in a POP (point of purchase) pot or not. Waves can be planted in any color of pot, and there is no law saying that they have to be identified as a Wave. However, if it is NOT a Wave, and the signage identifies it as a Wave, THAT is illegal. The difference you see in price at retail is a factor of a number of things. If it is a spreading petunia grown from a cutting, it will always be more expensive than one grown from seed. But....if is a seed grown spreading petunia (Wave, Avalanche, Ramblin', Plush, Opera, Explorer, Trilogy) and it has all of the marketing POP items associated with it, it drives the price up. All Kleenex are tissues, but not all tissues are Kleenex. All Waves are spreading petunias, but not all spreading petunias are Waves. And for the record, there are no "generic" spreading petunias. Everything has a specific variety name, you just don't always see it at retail.

Unfortunately I am in the process of removing my japanese barberry and replacing it with New Jersey tea shrubs because of my concerns about the invasiveness of the barberry. I wish it wasn't the case because I do like the little things (and digging out a thorny shrub isn't easy) but I feel it is the right thing to do when there is a chance that letting the barberry stay is harming the environment. Just because you don't see the plant spreading in the nearby landscape doesn't mean that birds aren't possibly eating the seeds and spreading it to nearby forests or other natural areas. There are a lot of very pretty plants that are at least not potentially invasive, if not native, that could replace it. The article I am linking to this post has this comment on the issue: >> Mark Brand, professor of ornamental horticulture, Plant Science and Landscape Architecture Department, University of Connecticut, does genetic studies on feral barberry plants to determine their source. He especially looks for purple parentage. DNA fingerprinting of old, invasive populations of barberry originally showed meager evidence of purple barberry contributing genes to wild plants. "We did find a little bit but it didnÂt seem as though these populations were largely produced by the purple leaf types," he says. In another sample, however, parentage analysis of the genetics showed that plants had indeed spread from an old purple plant in an old landscape. "That study did show that a large, old, established, standard-sized purple plant could contribute seedlings to surrounding unmanaged areas." Ehrenfeld likens low levels of long-distance seed dispersal to a still-humongous 1% microbial resistance to anti-biotics. "In Highland Park, every third house has a barberry hedge. If we were adjacent to a natural area and even if only one percent of those seeds were moving into a natural area and only one percent of that had managed to germinate, thatÂs still substantial, especially because there is so much effective dispersal thatÂs local with bushes spreading out vegetatively and seed dispersal thatÂs local. Here is a link that might be useful: Article about barberry's invasiveness

Those are beautiful pictures, Randy! When I saw your pictures, the plant reminded me of a native plant that grows on my property in the bottom of the hollow where it's wet. Most of the plants have bloomed out, but I found one still in bloom - I had forgotten the name of the plant, so I looked it up, and it's pluchea foetida/stinking camphorweed. I've never seen any butterflies use the flowers, but then I don't go to the bottom of the hollow that often. The picture of pluchea purpurescens/salt marsh fleabane in my wildflower book looks just like your pretty pink flowers - I'm sure that's what yours is. Sherry

I have both the tall purple Mexican Petunia and the shorter pink Mexican Petunia. Yes, they are very, very, very, invasive!!!!! I refused to plant any purple in my flower beds when we moved to Oklahoma but hated to not have any as it really is a pretty purple but true I haven't seen any butterflies attracted to it either. My solution was to put it in a flower pot mixed with the old fashioned orange lantana which does draw all kinds of butterflies and the combination of the yellow/orange with the purple is very striking. I also have the pink shorter ruella which I thought was a little more tame than the purple. Boy, was I wrong and I am about ready to rip it out and put into a flower pot. The only thing slowing me down (other than my arthritis) is that it really is pretty blooming in front of my perennial deep red hibiscus in the fall especially when the hibiscus has blooms on it at the same time. LOL Ms. Faith