Echinacea (Cone flower) from seed

Can anyone with experience give me advice on the best method to germinate echinacea from seed? I just purchased some Twilight seeds.
Thanks

Siggy - what is up man? Dmail over to Josephine - she does this every year with great results. I know I have just sown this time of year and they have always do good... anyway good to hear from you.
Mitch (Sweet peas are up and living in the cold weather out there. )

Mitch I didn't know that about Josephine. Yeah my sweetpeas are up and running too. Hopefully this cold will only slow them.

I hope so...

Josephine even summer sowed the seeds one year in the garden and they did fine... you know I think she can grow anything.

Bump!! bUMP!! Please, some one come on and help a two left footie plant his echinacea parodoxia,I want very much to do this right.Never have planted this from seed before, and lost the two I bought from Parks last Yr.,too late getting them, and a hot spell took over too soon. Thanks, Mike

I would sow them where you want them - probably after danger of frost. You can also sow them indoors a few weeks before the last frost date to get a jump on growing. Echinacea is very easy to grow (I'm not sure about this variety but it should be the same). Lightly cover the seed and give a gentle watering like most other seed.

Since I first posted this thread I've done some research. It seems echinacea needs to be stratified before it will grow and even then its germination rate is low.
You should probabley sow your seeds outdoors in the fall so has to fulfill echinacea's need for cold stratification.

Echinacea is popular with the winter sowing crowd. I looked at some of the germination databases for Echinacea, and it seems to do better in zones cooler than 8a. But you could store it in the fridge, or plant it outside now. I don't know about the hybrids like this one, though.

Well, I guess my best bet would be to sow now out doors, and HOPE for germination , and maybe prepair to buy a potted one.Sorry for sounding glum, but for the last 4 Yrs., I have been wanting the parodoxia, and saw one growing in zone 7,and silly me thaught I could have one too.OK!, who said life is easy, when at first, TRY, TRY again, after all , look at T. Eddison. Thanks all, still trying. Mike

Mike, take a look at this page. It says the E. paradoxa should be sowed at room temperature for a few weeks, then maybe in a refrigerator for a month, then somewhat warmer after that. Maybe you could use a tray and move it around.


http://tomclothier.hort.net/page03.html#e

Thanks for the link. That helps because I know that "twilight" is a cross between Echinacea purpurea and Echinacea paradoxa.

Thanks, claypa, I'll try anything. Mike

I started with two plants from a nursery several years ago. Just letting them self-sow has resulted in hundreds of transplantable starts to move and share.

Anyone have any luck with them sown in flats under lights? and is it too late to wintersow them in zone 7? I've got some orange colored, purple, and white swan that I would like to start. Thank you for any help. I put some in a flat a few days ago but they don't look too good, maybe they are going to rott with all the moisture. Any help is appreciated.

Tons of luck. I have never stratified them and get a pretty good crop each time. I guess I put 3 seeds in a cell and always have to thin (I do not recall if I get all three or just two, but I at least get two of the three.)

I fill my tray with seed starting mix
Drop the tray from 3 feet high a few times to help it settle
Top it off with more soil
Water it well from the bottom a couple of times over an hour or so
Drain off any extra water and bring it inside to let the soil get to room temp (usually over night, for convenience)
Drop 3 seeds per sell on top of the mix
Take a straightened paper clip and push each of the seeds into the soil (they are shaped like bullets, sort of, and I push on the wide end).
I might take the clip and move some dirt over them, but they JUST below the surface
Put a lid on the tray and keep at 70 degrees
Germination in 1 to 2 weeks, sometimes sooner

good luck

oh, I need to cast some soil over these seeds, that I did not do. I just scattered them on top of the soil. Going to do that right now.
THANK you. I'll let you know what happens.
A.

Siggy can you tell me where you purchased the twilight seed? I keep losing the plants from the nursery so would like to try seed instead. thanks Cindy

Riverland. Twilight is a registered and PPAF plant. Any seed would not be a true Twilight. Only way to get the real deal is to buy the plant.

Whoever sold them seeds is not selling real twilight seeds I am afraid.

For germinating echinacea, it best to look each cultivar up. I have some that wil germinate with a cold chill and I have some in my fridge in seed trays bidding their time.

Just wanted to say that there are at least 1 doz of the purple and 1 doz of the white swan seeds that have germinated on heatmats, domes, lights and misting..

Now, I have some yellow and some orange flowers, I just took the seedheads apart, some have seeds.. Anyway, I mixed the two. my question, is, will the orange ones and the yellows come out to be true? The pots did not have a name on them, lowes had them this past year (I couldn't find a lable) I got 6 one gallon pots, plus there was one growing here.

Gourd. Congrats on your babies. The purple and white , are very easy to germinate. Magnus and Bravado which are pink can be found as seeds.

If I remember correctly from my days at Lowe's the orange and yellow are from propagated material and PPAF which is why I didn't buy any of them since I couldn't take cuttings and divisions, so your seeds are gonna be surprises if they even germinate. Your orange and yellow are probably the hybrid culitvars 'Sunset' and 'Sunrise'

starlight,
THAnk you very much... I'll try these out on the heatmats to see what happens, I had been throwing away the flowerheads, then decided to check for seeds.

A.