Has anyone wintersown Angelonias?

I have a few seeds that I got off my white Angelonias last fall. Does anyone have experience with sowing them or would it be better to just buy plants? I know they can be propagated by cuttings, but I have not done that yet either. Since I have these seeds, I would like to try. In Zone 7a would sowing in March be the right thing to do, idlle March?

Thanks, C.

nobody replied so I'll take a stab. You need to google on angelonias to get their germination requirements. If they need heat to germinate, then you would do it indoors and harden off in late spring. Some plants want darkness for germination, some need stratification, etc. You will find out if you search the net.

I have some that I purchased - I want to try them, but will wait until March/April as I think they are more tender.

My question was about wintersowing them. Anita, are you going to sow them in jugs or out in the bed? Alyrics, I will see what I can find on google, too. Thanks to both of you, let's see if someone else has an idea.

Welllllllll, purchased seeds are very expensive. I think 10 seeds for $4.95? So, yes, your white ones are worth sowing :) They are slow growers by seed and if you have any kind of lights set up, use bottom heat and sow them inside.

If you don't have lights, then wait until March, when the weather has settled and you can count on some warmth, and start them then.

Suzy

Thank you, Suzy. I do have lights, I'll see how many seeds I have, and I might try to do both under lights and in a jug. I just looked in the Park catalog, they are $3.95 for 10 seeds - arrrgh.

I was planning on w/s them with a whole bunch of other tender annuals and veggies/herbs

I saved a few seeds from my purple Angelonias last fall, and here's what I came up with when I googled:

http://www.robsplants.com/plants/AngelAngus.php - Rob says that this plant takes a long time to flower from seed, so he will sow his seed in February in the following year. In 2006, he sowed his seed using the baggy method @70*F and got 12% germination in 7 - 19 days.

Since tomatos & zinnias can be wintersown in our zone, I'm going to try wintersowing a fraction of my Angelonia seed in early March and another in early April, as well as playing it safe with sowing some indoors this month. I'll be interested to see everyone else's results, too.

Hmmm ... Rob is in zone 6 (Allentown, PA). 12% germination is not encouraging. Spiral, you are not too far from him, are you? I don't have many seeds, so Maybe I'll try to wintersow like you, and if they don't do anything, I'll just buy them. I want them more than I want to experiment with them. Does that make sense?

I don't have any facts - just a theory - that if we keep saving and sowing our Angelonia seeds from year to year, that over time our Angelonia plants will yield more and more seed. I think it was Ron_Convolvulaceae in the Morning Glory Forum that said that, sometimes, some plants would adapt to whatever part of the world they would grow in over time. Within the scale of our individual lifetimes, we wouldn't see big evolutionary changes - just small adaptations - perhaps like this one.

So, since this is our first year to grow on saved seed of Angelonia, and since we really-really like this plant (of which we've saved so few seeds & which has such a low germination rate), I would choose the safest germination method which, for us, would be the 70*F-in-the-baggy method - http://www.robsplants.com/seed/baggy.php .

As I grow on the seedlings, I'd use my arsenal of anti-damping-off fungus techniques - http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3187584

And then - I wonder how many seeds we'd harvest this coming summer/autumn? Maybe next spring would be a better time to wintersow.

Here's a thread on germinating & growing on seedlings indoors that is wonderfully succinct & comprehensive: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/589725/

Bluespiral, such a thoughtful and touching answer. You are right, since we are really experimenting and really, really want some plants to come from our precious seeds, we should go the safest route until we can get more seeds off of our plants next year.

Thanks for the links.