6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

Be careful if you plant in a bed. They reseed and can be quite invasive.

gfult, One of the forget me nots is actually a biennial, so it grows in year one and in year two it blooms (usually in May or early Jun), sets seed and dies.. Presumably it will self sow after it sets seed, but many gardeners are tidy and clip off the brown stems with the dead seed heads which prevents this from happening.

As cheesy says above, if you have a place for forget me nots, they will make a beautiful blue focal point in spring, maybe for years to come. If you put them in the wrong place, they will shade out smaller plants in the spring and look very messy coming up between plants where they don't belong.

Lime

I dont know how you tried to germinate but I have success with.... lightly cover the seed SOIL TEMP 70-75F took 4 to 45 days to germinate & 10-14 weeks to set out green.

Pretty much do that.
Good to know soemone's had success.
Don't have problem with others in rudbeckia family
Guess I'll keep trying.

I didn't nick or soak my morning glory seeds and 75% of them germinated just fine. But with some varieties of sunflower I have in the past scraped the seeds over an emery board and then soaked them. I did this with a variety I really liked the look of, but hadn't had much luck with germinating in soil without help. It's a laborious way of doing things, but it did the job. If I had trouble with morning glory seeds, I'd try that method again with them.

Well I soaked them in a jar of warm water and shook it, like arjo said, and then put the jar in a sunny window in the morning 7/4. Within 6 hours, they were already sprouting, so I had to get them into the dirt right away! The Heavenly Blue have lots of sprouts now, and sprouted sooner. The Scarlett O'Hara only about half have sprouted.
Looking forward to beautiful MG flowers!
Thanks all!
BlueBars

Rhizo may have an answer for me, too. I am growing foxglove from commercial seed. The plants are in a little 6 pack plastic tray we got flowers in from a nursery. The seeds were so slow, starting out from seed starter that I added a bit of Miracle Gro which seems to have killed off half the little plants. I have the plants outside with only morning sun and a bit of water daily. They really look like they are moist all the time, which may not be good. My question is, Why aren't the plants growing? I had them for a whole month.

My coneflowers didn't bloom the first year. I think it was the thrid year before they were really full of flowers. But they are a nice looking plant even with out flowers. I think so anyway. The old saying goes they sleep the first year, creep the second year then leap the third year. But even if this is the case you will have a nice plant in a few years and you can fill in with annuals for color next season. There are some perennials that do bloom the first year but coneflower never has for me, but it could be me.

Gibby, I think you fertilized too soon. And if you used ther reccomended amount of fert, it may have acted as a weed killer, you should use 1/2 the amount they reccomend for new seedlings. Try scooting them closer to the sun a little at a time, don't do it all at once, maybe put them in more sun for an hour or so and then gradually get them to where they an have full sun all day. You might be better getting them out of the small pots they are in now as well, they have a tendency to dry out very fast and the seedling will cook.

OK thanks everyone!!! I've printed the lists.
Wish me luck.

Perennial geraniums are not on any of the lists. Can't these be sown now?

Congratulations, it looks like you're off to a great start! Happy Gardening....

Loved your black eye Susan vine, in that pail. WSing is very rewarding! Enjoy your summer.

Lavender starts easily from cuttings and will save a years time compared to seeds. Al

Al, how do you root lavender cuttings? I took two little cuttings and I have them in water right now.

That particular plant won't do anything, Linda, but the seed from it would be F3? Those might be very interesting. It also might be a dog. That's the great thing about seeds. :)

I had the same exact thing happen with seed from a F1 Zinnia, except the "flower" is a complete round ball, not just like a zinnia center with no petals....it's unattractive, but not unduly so.

Lime

Thanks for posting, Karen and Lime. I just want to give them another year to grow and see if anything changes. I don't have any extra room right now for them but I've found someone local who will adopt them and grow them for a while. I can visit them for myself, or get feedback from him on how they bloom the rest of the year and early next summer. We'll just have to see what happens.

Linda