Nice list. I'm getting the PowWow coneflower this year as well and have some of the others on your list. I love Gaillardia. I see you are going to go ahead with the Hollyhocks. Glad you are giving them a try.

I have about 80-90% sun here and hardly any full shade, so I get excited when it's time for the plants you listed to rise and shine.

Julia nice selection , I hope they do well for you. I did PowWow last year if you start it early enough it flowers fist season.

Nice selection Julia.
I have Rose ampion ,mine are Alba. They self sow nicely.

Julia
I grow canna from seed (Bought seed) I soak it in warm water for 24 hours before planting. The germ. rate is much better then.

I'm a Julia too

I have full sun with only a few areas with some partial shade later in the day. I thought for any that needs some shade, I could plant them so
they are planted near taller plants to provide some afternoon shade. Do you think that will work?

Bob: If I start the Echinaceas indoors in the next week (waiting for seeds to arrive), do you think they would be ready for outdoor planting by early May? Would I need to give the seeds cold stratification before starting them indoors?

springcolor said:Julia
I grow canna from seed (Bought seed) I soak it in warm water for 24 hours before planting. The germ. rate is much better then.

I'm a Julia too

Nice to meet another Julia
I have been soaking them in warm water which turns cool quickly but I thought we were suppose to wait for the radicle/white nub to appear?
I just posted a pic on the Tropicals forum of the seedling progression.

Thats a good place to get info. I still have slow germ. even after soaking but better than not soaking. I have them on a heat mat at 68 and covered with a plastic dome

Yes, underplanting like that will work well for a number of things, Julia NY.

I have never tried growing canna from seed but I got some gorgeous seed pods last year here. Someone gave me a whole lot of NOID canna tubers of assorted types so it will be fun to see what comes up this year.

Julia when I did them last year I started them in a friends greenhouse in late January. I just looked up about stratification which I did not do and it suggested 4 weeks of refrigeration. I do not do a lot from seeds so you might want to ask Karen.

NJBob said:Julia when I did them last year I started them in a friends greenhouse in late January. I just looked up about stratification which I did not do and it suggested 4 weeks of refrigeration. I do not do a lot from seeds so you might want to ask Karen.

Thanks Bob. Who is Karen?

Sorry Julia I thought you would recognize the name . Screen name is kqcrna , she moderates the seed forum and can inform you about winter sowing the seeds if you were interested in doing them that way. If you go back one page on this thread you will see her.

Don't say anything bad about me Bob, I'm eavesdropping

I've never tried wintersowing cannas, but I belong to another website where I know folks wintersow them.
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/f...

Karen

Never would Karen. Julia has Echinacea seeds coming and wants to know if they need cold stratification and I was wondering if she should just wintersow them.

Thanks Bob.

Nice list Julia, I also am wintersowing Echinacea, I have the Ruby Giant, Rubystar, Cutleaf coneflower, Paradoxa and some red noids. I am also trying some pink Hollyhocks and Arizona sun, just to mention a few. Happy Gardening and best of luck with your seeds.

susan

This is what Clothier says
"Echinacea pallida, and purpurea , Sow at 20ºC (68ºF), if no germination in 3-4 wks, move to -4 to +4ºC (24-39ºF) for 2-4 wks

Echinacea angustifolia, paradoxa, and tennesseensis , Sow at 18-22ºC (64-71ºF) for 2-4 wks, move to 4ºC (40ºF) for 9 wks, move to 10ºC (50ºF) for germination "

So, cold strat is probably helpful though not necessarily an absolute need. And some might do best with warm-cold-warm according to him. I'd never do all that rigamarole, I'd just wintersow. The fluctuating temps with WSing does seem to help a lot of seeds overcome dormancy. I find most any really fresh seed, as in just dropped naturally from the plant, will tend to grow immediately. The longer the seeds are stored, the more likely the dormancy issues and the more persnickety they tend to be about germination.

I have wintersown ech purpurea several times with success.

I might add, some of the newer hybrid echs do not produce viable seeds so if you've harvested seeds from those, or obtained them in trade, you might not want to get your hopes up too high. But regular old ech purpurea, or commercial seeds, should work well with wintersowing.

Karen

I mostly just wintersow also,it's kinda like an automatic cold strat and you don't have to harden off, I think it would get too complicated if I had to worry about all that stuff. Let's keep it fun, right?

That's my mantra. K-I-S-S

Karen

Thanks Karen. Very good information and that website is a great resource of information.