Hmm - I guess it's possible they're sterile, but I'm thinking it would be unlikely. I just picked some marigold heads from store-bought plants, but I could tell by the way the seeds were developed - or rather, weren't developed, even though they were totally dried - that nothing was going to happen with them. So, I would think that if you have lots of teeny tiny black round seeds, you'll have petunias. I'd sow one container of them anyway, and then sow some commercial or trade seeds to hedge my bets.

Oh, one caveat - as many petunias are hybrids, you might not get the same results as your original plant.

I think collecting the seeds would work. And if it doesn't, your just out a couple minutes of seed collecting.

I tend to get volunteer petunias poking up in the cracks of my slate walkway. The seeds must be coming from my containers on the deck - and since that deck is on the back of the house, I've always bought those petunias at Walmart. But this year I'm planning on wintersowing my petunias.

Yes you can collect seeds but some of the hybrid varieties maynot produce any seeds in which case you either have to buy new plants or find the seeds which in some cases they are out there. If they dont produce seeds you just wont find any of the seed pods.

It is so easy to collect petunia seeds. The little seed pods are where the flowers were. They start out green and when they turn brown/yellow the seed pods are ripe for the collecting.

Paula

I have collected seeds from many different kinds of petunias over the years and never found any to be sterile. Some of the hybrids produce very different (and wonderful) surprises, but there is one store-bought white variety which has been coming true for about three years. Try them, you have nothing to lose.

thanks!
I will collect what is left and give it a try.

Some hybrids might not produce seed, or their offspring might not resemble the parent- a crapshoot.

Old fashioned petunias should produce identical plants. Laura Bush offspring are identical.

Karen