When the seed pod turns brown, you can crack it open and drop the seeds into a little baggie or envelope. Just remember that if your petunias are hybrids, next year's plants won't come true. I've saved seeds from many, though, and they have come true, even Silver Waves.

Hi & welcome! I agree with Marcia, they might not be true but they will be tunies. I got a stray white petunia with some trade seeds last year and the thing ended up about 5' around and covered in blooms, so it was definitely a wave or something similar. There is nowhere else it could have come from except with the soapwort or Iceland poppies from trade that I planted there.

If you want to put in a little more effort for the whole winter, you can take cuttings in the fall that way they will be true to form.

Once you've managed to collect your seeds, there's a really good forum here called "Growing from Seed" that would be something you could learn from also. Be sure to read the FAQ before you get started.

It's good winter reading, as well as this one, of course =:)

Oops! After writing my last comment, I realize you may already know how to start plants from seed in your basement.

Do you vegetable garden and already have experience starting them in your basement?

Thank you both!! I really appreciate the comments. :)

I have some that I harvested that are still green. If I let them dry out and then harvest the seeds, will it be the same as waiting till they turn brown on the plant??

I am harvesting "Raspberry Blast" seeds because I can't find them anywhere. I find plants for sale, but that is not what I want. ;) All other types I will buy seeds for.

Northspruce......Can you tell me a little about these cuttings please?? I haven't heard of this before. Thank you!! :)

Nutsaboutflowers.......I don't have any experience starting anything in the basement as of yet. This is all new to me. ;) I will definitely take your advice and take a look through that forum.

I have ordered a lot of online seed catalogues from different places. Some have a lot of supplies in them as well that I need to order to start. This is a learning experience for me that I am looking forward to trying out. :)

I do have a couple rows of cucumbers done from seeds and a few tomato plants that were bought as plants and transplanted. I'm getting a couple of cucumbers starting to grow and a couple of small tomatoes as well. :)

Beware those online seed catalogues and in particular, the supplies they say you need. I personally don't think you need half of them and some are very expensive.

Please check the Growing from Seed forum before ordering anything. There's a gazillion pictures of people's growing setups, from very inexpensive to elaborate and you can choose what would work for you.

Ordering the seeds is great fun. I did it for the first time last year. Again, beware. I ordered tons of seeds and only managed to plant about half of them. Thank goodness, as I would have run out of room and I have 6 shelves that are 2'x 4'. Oh, and also remember that fluorescent fixtures are generally 4 feet long. Places like Rona sell them for much much less than the catalogues.

Lots of people on this forum grow from seed, so they'll have hints for you as well.

Thanks for the tip. I know I need cells or containers, dirt (or something), lights, fertilizer, and seeds for sure. I don't know if anything else is needed beyond that.

I know I am going to go overboard on the seeds, I knew that the first day I got the catalogue. ;) I have so many different types of Petunias that I want in my garden. Hehehee!!! ;)

I will definitely take a peeky at that forum. I just got a few catalogues this past week so I'm not near ordering yet anyway. ;)

So don't we need a special bulb for growing seedlings?? Will the fluorescent ones do?? The kitchen type fluorescent ones??

Sort of, yup, and as far as I know, yup =:)

You'll get a good idea when you read the seed starting forum. The fluorescent fixtures are what you'll want. My DH checked the tubes I was going to buy and said they were fine.

We're getting a little ahead here as you'll be doing this in February/March or so, unless you decide to try cuttings,too as Northspruce mentioned.

BTW I grew marigolds in those containers you get the precooked chickens in from the grocery store and then put them into yogurt containers.

Someone here could probably tell you if that will work for petunias, also, and then you wouldn't have to buy a lot of tiny little pots.

Just be careful, it's easy to get carried away and then get almost overwhelmed, LOL !

Way off topic here but......

You have no idea what kind of "trouble" you're getting yourself into reading this forum =:)

People here will tell you and show you things you've never heard of and then you'll have to have them, and then you'll order 100's of bulbs, and then you'll plant more and more perennials, and then you'll start to rescue plants near the end of the season, and then you'll start removing your lawn because you need more room, and you will get really proficient with a shovel and a wheelbarrow because you'll buy all kinds of shrubs, and, and, and, LOL !!

Welcome to the Far North forum. I see on another post you mentioned that you're from the Yorkton area. North Eastern Seed in Yorkton has a good variety of different sized cell packs. They also carry a lot of seed.

Raspberry Blast is a beautiful petunia, but it is a hybrid - a Proven Winner supertunia. Seeds from hybrids, if viable, can sometimes be the same as the plant you've taken them from but sometimes are not. There's no way to tell until the plant is blooming and then even if the blooms are the same, the habit of the plant may not be - it might not spread like it should or may be weaker. Seeds from hybrids may not form at all or may be sterile. Because Raspberry Blast is a self cleaning petunia, I suspect that there may not be any seeds at all.

Taking cuttings of a plant is a fairly simple process where you cut off a piece of a stem, dip the cut end in rooting hormone, and then put that cut end in a starting mix soil, cover with a dome to keep things humid and then wait. I'm sure there's some very good tutorials on how to do it on YouTube. Cuttings of a plant will always be the same as the plant you took the cuttings from.

40 watt fluorescent bulbs are what you need for seed starting. You do not need full spectrum grow light bulbs. What you do need is a way to bring the seed flats right up to the lights, or a way to drop the lights right down to the seed flats. Seedlings need to grow very close to the light source so that they don't stretch & reach for the light resulting in weak, spindly plants.

Have fun with your new found hobby. There's lots to learn but, as you can see, there's plenty of people willing to pass on their experience and knowledge.

All you do to take cuttings is get a small, clean plant pot full of potting soil or seed starting mixture, then cut off a couple of inches of an actively growing tip of your petunia and stick it in the soil. An actively growing tip will have small baby leaves at the end. Press around it to firm the soil and leave it on a windowsill out of direct sunlight. Keep it moist but not soggy at all times. It will grow roots in about 2 weeks and you will have a new petunia plant. After a few months it will grow larger and you can transplant it to a bigger pot. You can also take more cuttings from it to increase your numbers. Just so I told you, most modern petunias are patented and illegal to propagate but nobody's going to care. We joke about the Petunia Police here.

If you pick your seed pods green they might not have had time to form seeds properly yet, so you might get fewer viable seeds or none at all.

I agree with NAF about not buying every single gadget and supply. I will tell you what I bought for my indoor lights. I bought some cheap pine shelving units at Walmart and some of the plug-in fluorescent light strips (4') from Home Depot. I save plant pots every time I buy bedding plants, and I buy bags of seedling starter mix (from any Home Depot, Cdn Tire, Walmart, wherever). I also have a bottle of seedling starter fertilizer, it's a weak blend so it doesn't kill the seedlings. In the fluorescent light strips, I use regular 4' fluorescent tube lights. Make sure you buy full 40 watts, not the 35 watt energy savers. It's also handy to have an automatic timer to turn the lights on and off.

O.K. ladies.

Do tell how you manage to keep your petunia alive in the house all winter.

Cool and lots of light. I personally have never overwintered a tunie but the same principles apply to pelargoniums which I have overwintered. Start with a cutting. As it grows, if it gets leggy, take more cuttings and chuck it out.

WOW, thank you all for the wonderful advice!! I'm writing things down that I need as I go along. :)

Nutsaboutflowers.......Yeah, I can see myself getting into tons of trouble here. ;) I'm already redoing my whole flower bed, which has some irises, tiger lilies, and bleeding hearts. The bleeding hearts have to go cause they are just hogs. Every year, they seem to be taking up more and more space in my flower garden. :S So in the fall, we will be planting some new irises and lilies. :)

Pudge......Yep, I'm 10 min from Yorkton and I make a trip into town almost daily. I was going to to go North Eastern Seed (Thanks for the tip) yesterday, but they were closed!! Must have something to do with the long weekend. Anyway, I'll try again on Tuesday. :)

I have gotten seeds from my Raspberry Blast, however, I won't know if they are viable until I try to plant it in January/February. I'll try the cutting method too, so I will for sure have Raspberry Blast next year. That brings me to my next question. :)

For the cuttings, I was at Canadian Tire today and saw a gel substance. It was supposed to promote new root growth from a cutting. Is this the "rooting hormone" you were talking about?? I will have to take a look online for better details. :)

Northspruce........Oh shoot, yep, I've been picking the seed pods while they were still green. However, I've missed some and had the seed pods open right up on me and the seeds poured right out. :P There will be a ton more chances for me to get the brown seed pods from them. ;)

Petunia Police, eh?? I think I better watch out for them then. HAHAHA!!!! ;)

For the setup, my fiance says he's got a few ideas for how to get things started for me as far as placement and how things will be set up. I trust him, he's always got great ideas. :)

Unforunately, I can't grow things here in the house without artificial light. I can't depend on sunlight coming into the house because there are too many trees around and it blocks the sun from coming in and we have windows that block the UVA/UVB light. Therefore, I have to have the artificial light at all times, if I want to grow some stuff in here. ;)