Beautiful plant!! I wonder how it would do for me. Would love to see your pictures.

SCG

SouthCG,
Good question. The data sheet says that the seeds can be planted in the fall or spring. Regarding spring: "Spring Production: Sow in January for natural
flowering in early May to early June dependent on
temperature. "
I have had "northern" plants grow in my garden; maybe this will serve as an annual for you.
I have a picture of the trays which I will post when I get the camera hooked to this computer. But it just shows some nice seedlings in trays. Like many of my fall seedlings, they probably will just sit around getting established in the ground and then take off in the spring when the time is right.
That's when I will supply as many pictures as noteworthy. I still am keeping my fingers crossed because failure could still happen with this variety even though I grow guaras regularly.
Bob

Bob,

Where did you acquire your seeds? I am very interested in trying a few in the spring.

Thanks

SCG

SCG,
I get my seeds from www.geoseed.com

Click this link: http://www.geoseed.com/id3.html
Then at the bottom, run you mouse over the icons until it says "download". The one next to the "speaker" will say "download". It's best to download the catalog. It is a huge catalog with no pictures; could take a little time to download.
You can get the seeds elsewhere but they are alot more expensive. Geoseed sells to everyone.
Bob

This looked great in the AAS trials in Michigan, and also performed well in Ontario...and the photos on the AAS website are from actual trials, not just "pretty" photos from the breeder. For a Guara from seed, it is actually very nice.

Buggy, thanks for the link. I will look at the site. How long was it from seed to flower for you?

SCG

Hi SCG,
That data sheet in the link shows what seems to happen with flowering. IE, Plant in the fall and it blooms a little earlier in the spring; plant in the spring, it blooms a little later.
Plant in late August like I did, it still will not bloom till it is ready in the spring. The seedlings will sit around doing nothing then take off.
Because I am in NE Florida and the Feb can be nice, I have seen this thing start bloom then. The one I still have now is still in bloom.
The interesting thing is that I cut off 3 small pieces and planted it in the ground (no hormone) about a month ago and they are growing. That means easy to grow from cuttings, hopefully.
Out of my 150, if they live, I can pick the very best and mutiple them, hopefully.
Bob

Thanks, I was only curious to when I had to start them from seed...I am not sure they would over winter here :)

Thanks again.

That's something to think about. You will save a lot of aggravation (work) if you plant in the spring. The data sheet says that the blooming will be delayed but that is because the plant needs that time to germinate and get established, unlike seeds planted in late August/September. But they have a long blooming season, so maybe no big deal.
But the data sheet says you can plant in the spring, so you might consider that if you have doubt about over wintering.
Maybe try this: Do an experiment with a few seeds from your package this year. Save them in the frig and plant them in August for the following year and see if the seedlings over winter.

IMHO

I am going to try some seeds this year and see how they do. Will update to how they overwinter for zone 5.

Thanks for the links their pricing is pretty good.

SCG

Update: Love these plants. They continue to grow well. 2/04/2014