ahhh ... the reason i quit growing from seed .. lol ... i could never get the timing right .... you get that spring itch way to early .. and before you know it.. the plants have to go out ... and its 45 to 60 days before you can do such ... aka last frost .... increase light as noted.. and try pinching back some of them.. and see how they respond ... both types should be able to handle that ... you will have much bushier plants .. if they make it ... experiment .... also ... if you saved any seeds... just plant another batch .. so if these become a lost cause.. you will have another batch on the way .... one thing i did learn .... plant 1/4 of your seeds... once every other week or so ... one out of the 4 will be timed properly ... lol we can all get the seeds to sprout ... its all the other million variables that are hard to time perfectly .... it soon becomes apparent.. or it did to me ... that by the time i bought the lights.. the medium.. the pots.. etc .. that those 6 packs for a buck or two ... were quite a bargain ... lol ... unless you need a thousand of something .... but it was fun to dabble in the house in the dead of winter .... good luck ken

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.

Another thought is to sow in succession for your waning beauties. If you just want to keep the show going, and not wait on regrowth, try sowing new ones about 2-3 weeks after your first batch (that's if you're growing from seed.) Join us on the Winter Sowing forum or the Growing from Seed forum (one is outside growing, one is inside...both in controlled container environments) and you'll have more petunias than you can imagine next season! (This is my plan...I didn't know about cutting them back until I just saw this thread today...and have since let all my Ps go to seed)

maryjo, the only way I could ever get verbena b. to germinate was by winter sowing. I never had any luck under lights...if you have success I would love to hear how you did it! The pot with the tomato cage tower is roughly 30 inches in diameter. Thank you so much for the compliment. My neighbors think I'm crazy! mk, I am wondering if maybe you have too many plants in each planter? I know that tidals when planted together will kind of push against each other and grow more upwards. To get the cascading effect I do a lot of side-planting. I cut holes in my coco liners (and even drill holes in my plastic pots). I know someone posted earlier that tidals should be planted in the ground....that may be true but I have had a lot of success in planters. They need a lot of room and a lot of regular fertilizing. They seem to take over but I kind of like that look. Sorry to hear that your hubby neglected your pots! If the flowers are gone and they are looking a little stressed I would for sure prune them way back like rhizo suggested. Maybe after a week of "love" give them some fertilizer at half strength or less. I hope they pop back!