Expert: Long Island Gardener - 12/18/2007

Question
I live in northern VA (zone 7, I think) and have some petunias that have done amazingly well the summer in window boxes on my full-sun front porch.  In fact, they spread into the pots I had nearby and are still growing well even in the current cold weather.  I am leery about leaving them where they are through the winter and read your recent reply about bringing geraniums indoors.  Do the same "rules" apply for petunias (water well and deep and allow to dry out, pinch back, etc.)?  Also, I can't really bring the window box in (it only has a few plants left in it, most are in pots); is it safe to transplant the few remaining into the pots with the others?  Or should I put them in a new pot?  Or just cut my losses with those few and focus on the ones in the pots?  I'm a pretty novice gardener, so any advice is appreciated!

Answer
Petunias endure triple digit temperatures in the hottest days of Summer.  But they can take freezing weather without a sneeze, too.  So why can't you just grow these indoors?

Alas, they are annuals.  Unlike Geraniums, which are Perennials and built with the growth hormones that never say Die.

I'm not even sure you can take cuttings of Petunias and get them to grow the following year after they root.

People in Sunny, Tropical climates pop the same question: I love my Petunias, I want to keep them forever.

Some refuse to take No for an answer.  So they try.

But not even those SuperPetunias with their high-output flower genes will bloom endlessly.  No matter how nice you are to them.  No matter how much you love them.  They are still, unfortunately, Petunias, made to bloom a single Season, then fade to black.  That's just the way God planned it.

Perennials will bloom -- in theory -- perennially; i.e., year after year after year.  But in practice, many modern hybrids are not bred to bloom more than a year or two, although they don't tell you that.  Pick one out and let me know what you want to grow.  I'll tell you everything.  Thanks for writing.