Cardinal Flower

My mission has started - I have some cardinal flower seeds. I am due to move into a new house about April 15 (upstate NY). Here are my questions:

Is it better to start them now in a pot - or should I wait until I move and try to sow them in April?

Do these do well in a pot?

Do they transplant?

If I do plant these in the yard, any recommendations on wintering them?

Any other hints?

Thanks in advance - I fell in love with these flowers during a trip in Vermont last year, bought some and have been waiting for months.

Cardinal flowers like a moist soil. In fact they'll grow in shallow water or at the waters edge. I posted on one of your other threads about starting the seeds. I grew them in a container in my pond. they didn't bloom until the second year for me. The first year they were just a rosette of foliage. If you grow them in a pot you might want use one that doesn't have a drainage hole so they will stay on the wet side. To winter them I'd plant them in the ground in the fall.

I've bought some plants as well as grown them from seed. I have had no problems growing them from seed, although in my garden I have them growing in a shady spot that is not near water. Several of the red varieties tend to dry out quickly and need to be watered heavily (ie - as others say would probably do better in or near a water garden). The perennial blue variety has done much better for me and I even have one growing in the sun in my front bed and it is absolutely georgious!