If I Save Seeds From My Striped Petunias Will the Plants Look the Same Next Year?

Petunias

• Well-cared-for petunias add color to the landscape from early summer until the first frost of fall. The familiar, trumpet-shaped blooms make an excellent addition to cottage gardens, flower beds, hanging baskets and borders. Like most annuals, petunias require replanting each year. To reduce the cost of spring planting, economical gardeners can collect the seeds produced by mature petunia flowers; however, when sowing saved petunia seeds, there is no way to predict the outcome since hybrid seeds rarely generate offspring that are true to form.

Hybrids

• When the pollen from one type of petunia is used to fertilize the flowers of another type, the result is known as a hybrid. Hybridized flowers tend to display traits that are commonly observed in the contributing parents. For example, when a petunia with magenta flowers is crossed with a petunia with white flowers, the resulting plants tend to produce magenta flowers with white stripes. This is because flower color in petunias is a co-dominant trait whereby both colors are expressed at the same time.

Hybrid Seeds

• According to the North Dakota State University Extension Service, more than 99 percent of commercially grown petunias are hybrids. Planting the seeds you harvested from your commercially grown hybrid petunias often produces less-than-desirable results. The seeds from a hybridized plant often revert to type, displaying the traits of the plants used to create the hybrid, rather than those of the hybrid itself. Additionally, saved seeds do not have the disease resistance and abundant flora associated with the hybrid plant.

Procedure

• Those who are not concerned with plant predictability will find it easy to collect petunia seeds. Simply wait for the flowers to turn dry and brown, then, rather than deadheading the plant, snip off the stems. Put the stems in a paper bag, seal the top, and set the bag in a cool, dry location for the duration of the winter, as this will give the plant materials time to dry out; 10 to 12 weeks before the anticipated date of the final frost, open the bag and remove the seed pods. Cut the pods open and remove the seeds.