Cilantro, by contrast, is a proper annual. It's a nightmare to keep it from going to seed, and it won't survive long after producing seeds. With a lot of work (proper pruning, temperatures, water, light wavelengths, ...) you can keep it alive more than a year, but in the wild it's definitely an annual no matter where you plant it on Earth.
Petunias are happy to live multiple years. Like tomatoes [0], they're originally from more tropical areas and are perennials so long as they aren't exposed to frost, against which they have no defenses. In the anglosphere we've borrowed a lot of plants from elsewhere in the world, and in the presence of a proper winter we tend to treat them as annuals instead.
Annual/perennial isn’t a hard and fast distinction with plants, as it is often condition dependent.
In outdoor conditions where freezing occurs (most of the United States), outdoor petunias can be considered annuals as frost or near freezing temperatures will harm them. However they do not die after simply seeding.
However petunias moved indoors for the winter will generally survive for multiple years when kept out of cold weather (best to keep them above 50 degrees F). Petunias are in the nightshade family, and behave like you would expect if you have experience with members of the family.
At some point an indoor plant may decline or die for a variety of reasons (bacterial and fungal disease buildup can be an issue), however petunias are notable for being very easy to propagate via cuttings, as such they can be kept alive/multiplied indefinitely if you are willing to put in the work and research into how to care for them.
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That's some weasel wording here. Are they still annuals if they're grown indoors or not?
It's a meaningful distinction.
Cilantro, by contrast, is a proper annual. It's a nightmare to keep it from going to seed, and it won't survive long after producing seeds. With a lot of work (proper pruning, temperatures, water, light wavelengths, ...) you can keep it alive more than a year, but in the wild it's definitely an annual no matter where you plant it on Earth.
Petunias are happy to live multiple years. Like tomatoes [0], they're originally from more tropical areas and are perennials so long as they aren't exposed to frost, against which they have no defenses. In the anglosphere we've borrowed a lot of plants from elsewhere in the world, and in the presence of a proper winter we tend to treat them as annuals instead.
[0] https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/tomato-tree-in-epcots-l...
Annual/perennial isn’t a hard and fast distinction with plants, as it is often condition dependent.
In outdoor conditions where freezing occurs (most of the United States), outdoor petunias can be considered annuals as frost or near freezing temperatures will harm them. However they do not die after simply seeding.
However petunias moved indoors for the winter will generally survive for multiple years when kept out of cold weather (best to keep them above 50 degrees F). Petunias are in the nightshade family, and behave like you would expect if you have experience with members of the family.
At some point an indoor plant may decline or die for a variety of reasons (bacterial and fungal disease buildup can be an issue), however petunias are notable for being very easy to propagate via cuttings, as such they can be kept alive/multiplied indefinitely if you are willing to put in the work and research into how to care for them.
It should be noted that light.bio is perfectly fine with personally propagating them if you like, so long as you aren’t selling them: https://old.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1aw14j3/genetica...
They're tender perennials. Temps under 40 degrees kill them, so they're functionally annuals in most of the US.
I plan to keep mine indoors with grow lights.