Why are "Tidal Wave" petunia seeds so expensive?

[Floatilla]

2003 I purchased several packs of these and planted them in window boxes on my deck. They all grew like crazy. At the end of the season, the seed pods were EVERYWHERE. The next season, I had an INVASION of these petunias as they started growing everywhere under my deck, in old containers, even in other areas of the yard.

Even this year, they are still coming back.

This leads me to great confusion as to why merchants are charging **35 CENTS PER INDIVIDUAL SEED**. Initially I thought it must be a hybrid that doesn't put many seeds out, but of course now I know this is wrong.

These vendors don't charge these high prices for their other petunia seeds like "celebrity."

[Mark Herbert]

They charge you a high price because they know you will never need to be buying those seeds again.

[yourbuster]

Hybrids don't always come back true and require a cross to exist. And those crosses are done by hand.

>

> In 2003 I purchased several packs of these and planted them in window

[Vox Humana]

In addition, they are selling a brand. There is an advertising campaign that tries to convince people that there is some added value to these plants. Frankly, I'm sort of tired of all the hype. The "proven winner" brand is the one that really gets me going. Each year there are more and more plants sold as "proven winners." These plants are only sold in larger sized pots and have a premium price. Rather ordinary plants that could be had at a reasonable price now cost a small fortune. I refuse to buy them.

[yourbuster]

I agree that there is too much branding and marketing done for old plants that should be sold because of how well it does in the garden. New plants do require upscale marketing to get the attention they deserve, but if they perform as well in the garden as they are promoted then they should sell themselves without the higher cost of branding.

Just a note about PW, they only sell the growers rooted cuttings and not unrooted. So the freight on 400 plugs was around $63 the last time we purchased PW's two years ago. Now we do only unrooted cuttings from Simply Beautiful and pay about $32 freight for 3000 cuttings. Most companies with plants in the PW line are also withdrawing and not adding new items, that is why you see more and more ordinary plants being added to PW.

The only premium cost that I consider to be necessary are the royalties for patented plants. Though some are high, from $0.04 to $6.00, someone spent years if not a lifetime working on breeding the plant.

My two cents....

[Vox Humana]

I don't begrudge anyone a return on their investment, but I am seeing things like the sweet potato vine being sold under the PW brand. I find that sort of insulting or patronizing.

[fran]