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.

Beautiful photos! Karen that is a wonderful photo of Laura Bush. Every time I see it I fall in love with it. I love the combo with the lobelia. livesauntieshel, I spent 5 years trying to get my balcony supertunias to look that good for that long. I felt I mastered container gardening, but all petunias always beat me. I have a black thumb for those. I was in an area with extreme drought last year, and I grow tropicals as well so I was watering a lot. My tropicals and even rose bushes thrived but petunias died in mass. I think I should try both petunia varieties to see if I can get good results with those. Although I should take a break this year so the budworms don't think my yard is their paradise.

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

No weeping allowed, we all have plants we have problems with for one reason or another. :-) Here's PW's 'Pretty Much Picasso' which has been a great plant but is starting to fade a bit. I probably haven't fed it enough. Pic taken awhile ago. Still looks *OK* and I'm leaving it to see if it perks up. If not I'll rip it out but it's a petunia I will buy again. The tag on this said it's an Easy Wave Blue which IMO is misnamed. The tag shows a pic of the same color as mine which I'd call fuschia, not blue. This wave is not as 'abundant' as other waves I've had. This pic taken today and I've fed and watered these less than the Picasso and they've held up better so I'd buy them again. I also bot a large flat of the old style ordinary dark purple petunias because I almost always get them and they were really slow taking off but are starting to grow larger and are blooming well. Don't have a pic. Petunias really require heavy feeding and lots of water. Not easy care but so pretty and fragrant.