Trish, thinking about your warm climate, so different from mine, you probably have lots of options for starting echinaceas: traditional indoors under lights, or in plain vermiculite, or wintersowing... I've wintersown echinaces several times with good results, but in my cold climate, they sprout kind of late, grow slowly in cool spring weather, and don't usually bloom until the second year. Cheyenne Spirit bloom the first year, but if I wintersowed them, I don't know that they would bloom before the second year. Your warm weather would be more agreeable.
Karen
