I have lost many a petunia seedlings due to ignorance on how to handle them. The most important thing to know is that they are fragile when young - more fragile than almost any other seedlings. The key is to have a really porous seed starting mix made up of vermiculite, sphagnum moss, perlite etc. Also important is to feed them every week and provide good sunlight. I have experimented with covering the seed with 1/8 to 1/4 starting mix. They seem to germinate just as fine and I think they had better strength than those grown on soil. If you need 12 plants for your garden, sow at least 24 to 30 seeds to be on the safe side.

We can argue this point back and forth, but the sensible approach is to make sure water can drain, because once it's in there, it's going to want to run downhill, not jump over the pot rim. It's not a question of what you CAN do, or what you can get away with; rather, what's likely to be best for the plant, and there is no question that pots with drain holes are far less likely to present you with issues related to the roots. ..... and there is no way to flush salts from containers w/o drain holes. From the top, the plants are a variegated pilea mini jade (Portulacaria) potpourri on a rock geranium snapdragon coleus sedum house leek (hen/chicks) impatiens (repens) yes it is more well-pinched coleus Al

If you are planning to use them as potted plants they would definitly need more space. If you are planning on planting them outside, I think they would be fine in a 1204 flat or larger. I have had much sucess with starting them in 1204 flats and transplanting them outside after about 8 - 10 weeks. However, if you are starting wave petunia's I have read that they need more room because of their spreading habit.Hope this helps.

They don't live in Florida, either. So after 6 years in Florida, we moved to Tennessee, and my kids (2 were born in FL, and one didn't remember living anywhere else) saw them for the first time. I grew up around them in Ohio, so while I had missed the summer tradition, I wasn't surprised by them. I didn't think to point them out to my kids and identify them. I had a good laugh when they all dropped their mouths open and pointed "What is THAT?" It was fun, they were just the right age to be amazed by them. I think maybe the bugs need cold ground for their larvae stage? Anyone know? Seems like that's what I read once. That's whey they aren't in climates that don't get a cold winter. We see a few here, lucky to see 5-6 a night, not like we'd see in Ohio or even Tennessee. Once in TN I read that scientists needed them for research, and would be in town collecting captured lightning bugs on certain days in August. You were supposed to capture them, then put the entire container in the freezer where they would, of course, die. But you had to keep them frozen. So we'd catch 30-40 a night, freeze the jars, then the next day transfer the dead, frozen bugs to a larger container. Then store them in the freezer until the collection time. Even then, you were supposed to bring them in a container, in a cooler packed with ice. They could not thaw out after that first freezing, could not get wet and have ice on them. We had hundreds of dead lightning bugs in our freezer. They were buying the lightning bugs, I don't remember the price, but it wasn't much. We figured if we even had 500-600 we'd be lucky to buy one milkshake with our profit. LOL. It was just a fun summer diversion. Then we ended up having to move a few days before the collection date, so we never did get to turn them it. I offered them to a couple neighbors to carry on the project, but no took me up on it, just looked at me like I was nuts. Go figure. Sorry, that got long. People tell me I have a story for everything. When I've had too much caffeine, I tell them all!