[rowlandwells]

do you grow your bedding plants in the greenhouse from seed or buy in plugs and pot them on in your greenhouse

 have you bought  calibrachoa a I believe it to be part  of the  petunia family we usually buy this in as plugs but I see there available as seed now as I said they are as I understand there part of the petunia family and I wanted to ask if anyone grows petunia from seed if so do you have good germination and produce good healthy plants because I'm considering having a go at growing calibrachoa from seed

for those of you that grow calibrachoa from plugs or buy them in as plant will know they are lovely hanging basket plant masses of colour that produce all summer

so if anyone grows calibrachoa or petunia any advise would be most appreciated

[wighty]

I tried petunia one year, the seed is absolutely minute and came in a little glass phial.  It was very hard to 'sprinkle' evenly over the compost.  Germination wasn't bad but did take a while.  I can't remember what the plants eventually turned out like as it was a few years ago.   Never heard of calibrachoa so can't comment on them.  We now buy plugs and pot them on. 

[rowlandwells]

Hi Wighty your rite petunia seed is like dust to sow and I found it better to buy plugs to we bought in plugs last year calibrachoa Kabloom  F1 series I seen the same variety in my catalogue sold as seed and the seed was pelleted sow the seed would be more easy to sow?

I've already ordered some other petunia to try in pelleted form a variety called Mambo [multiflora] mix colours this variety is supposed to resist stretching and therefore growth regulators are not required

so its going to be interesting to see how the pelleted seed performs

[mrs bouquet]

These are commonly called "Million Bells" aren't they ?    I have never grown them myself, until last summer never even had them !,   but I did buy 4 plugs thilast year and popped them into a wrought iron container.   The nursery man was explaining to me that germination can be quite difficult and so they always do more than they think they will sell.  So I am not a lot of help.  I chose them because I have never been successful with Petunias.   Once planted though, I found them very manageable and they required no dead heading.  I know you plant up a lot, and I think I remember you used them last year.    I think they are a very good choice, and I wish you every luck.   regards  Mrs Bouquet

[rowlandwells]

your quite rite Mrs B I'm sure calibrachoa is a fancy name for million bells and yes we  had calibrachoa cherry rose  last year they did very well so we decided to order the same  variety for this year we buy them in as raised cutting rather than seed raised. cutting raised are a tad dearer but they are more forward than the seed raised and therefore we found them more easier to grow on 

we had a lot of interest from folks looking at our calibrachoa  who visited us on the NGS open day last year the downside to calibrachoa we found  not to overwater and its a bit nail biting until they get going  they don't like the cold or very hot conditions but when they are in bloom there absolutely lovely