the trick to chocolate daisies

'Bout 3-4 yrs ago,I struggled,tried and wasted tons and tons of seeds for chocolate daises,finally producing only 3 plants(out of several hundreds of seeds...one lived,rock garden part shade...two in full,all day sun ..died)). Over the past 3-4 yrs I have collected seeds from my surviving plant,sewed them at various different times and ways only to fail and fail again. SO!... this passed week I harvested more fresh seeds,placed them on a damp paper towel(s),put them in a zip lock bag on my light bench(6/27)and "EUREKA!"...in 3 short days they are germeniating. Just thought I'd let ya'll know just in case anyone is trying chocolate daisies from seed.


P...doing the Happy Dance!

Thanks for the info! NIce to know and nice to not have to go through all that myself. Glad you found the secret!

If my little chocolate daisy seedlings (like you, I only managed to get a couple) survive and flower and set seeds, I will be trying your method!

Thanks!!

critter...I want some chocolate daisies!!! What do they look like? They sound pretty.

I bought a package of chocolate daisy seeds and carefully planted them outside, like..in May sometime I think it was. Maybe April even...but none of them ever came up. I was so bummed!!

Noobie.... check out the pics in PF, http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1605/index.html

I need to weed in the coneflower bed where I *think* I planted them LOL and see if they are still there. I should've put a label in the ground with them, but I didn't! It might be a trick trying to tell them apart from the gaillardia seedlings until next year when they bloom.

Actually, I thought I had planted them in front of some purple coneflowers, but then this *huge* plant grew up that is 3-4 feet tall and covered in blooms like small sunflowers... I did have a perennial sunflower that I also stuck out there "somewhere," so I was assuming that's what was blooming since I don't expect blooms from the chocolate flower this year. I was wondering though what I was thinking planting such a tall plant at the front of the bed -- it's taller than the coneflowers -- so maybe that is where the chocolate daisies went after all. The oriental lilies are so overpowering back there that I'm not sure I could pick up on a "faint chocolate scent," but maybe I should lean closer tomorrow for a good sniff, just to check!

You can help me hunt for them on Saturday!

I grew mine in a plastic sandwhich bag with damp vermiculite. Basically the same as your method. How many years until they flower from seed?

I planted out little wintersown seedlings this spring, and they are now 4 ft. tall, bushy plants in full bloom, as described above.... I looked up pics in PF, and that big plant is definitely a chocolate daisy! LOL at how I thought it wasn't going to get taller than 18 inches, don't know where I got that idea from!

Not fair! You wouldn't want to trade mine for your's, would you?

Second year from seed for me. Mine get lanky and sprawl.

P