Finally, my pink petunias are looking good! I've had terrible luck with them the last two years; I put them in hanging baskets on my porch and enjoyed them for only a short time before some mysterious petunia-plague killed every last one.
Both times my petunias failed, they were the Wave types, which really puzzled me, because Waves are usually dependable and virtually carefree. But I had only a month to enjoy mine before the plants started to wilt and droop. They seemed to die almost one at a time, until I had to toss the entire basket. Sometimes, those kinds of problems are due to over-watering, but these baskets drained nicely, and besides, I was careful not to give them too much.
After reading some posts on the Web, I'm inclined to think now that my petunias simply came down with some sort of incurable fungus, and because I planted the second year in the same baskets, without sterilizing them, the fungus probably overwintered and killed the next batch I put in there. This spring, I started with fresh potting soil, clean baskets, the whole nine yards, and ta -da! It's June, and so far, so good--still lots of pretty, pink, healthy blooms.
Next year I'm going to sow some heirloom petunias in the beds around my porch and really compare how they grow and thrive, to the hybrid varieties. I know I probably won't plants with the same compact forms, but maybe their disease-resistance will make it for it.
Also, I just read an interesting tidbit from a county extension agent with the North Dakota service: did you know that 99.4% of the petunias sold on the market are now hybrids? That means that if you collect the seeds for planting next year, you'll get a mixed result--the baby petunias won't necessarily look like their parents. Remember all that stuff you learned about Gregor Mendel in high school, with his experiments in genetics? Hybrids are crosses of different kinds of petunias, so their seeds do not grow "true to type," and you may get baby petunias that look like one of the parents used to create them. That may or may not be what you want! So if you're saving seeds, get heirloom petunias to start with, and you can grow them year after year.
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