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 produ

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-land-pavilion-breaks-world-record/ https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/tomato-tree-in-epcots-l...