Have any seeds surprised you?

I was pleasantly surprised to get several sprouts in my Gaillardia container. I know that others have reported trouble with this plant and it was one of the few plants that did not sprout for me back in 2005.

Not really a surprise, but I have been happy to get a few sprouts in each of my two Heuchera containers. They are very small and none of my seedling survived my attempt to grow Heurchea last summer so I am crossing my fingers.

My Osteospermum container sprouted in just 5 days!

I am a bit surprised (but not overly concerned) that I don't have sprouts in these three containers: Rudbeckia fulgida, Echinacea purpurea, and Echinacea purpurea 'White Swan'. I get a bunch of Rudbeckia seedling in my garden and I have had success with both types of Echinacea before.

- Brent

I saw my first purple coneflower sprout this morning! Nothing else has sprouted, so no surprises ....

PV

I started some magnus indoors under lights on 3/14, started a wintersowing flat of white swan on 3/3. Both germinated on 3/25, but the magnus germinated evenly all at once, and the white swan has been a bit here and a bit there. Both are now outside in my coldframe, and the magnus is well ahead of the white swan. I will continue to track them this summer to see if there is any difference in the end.

I just saw the 1st sprout on Viburnum, "Wentworth"! I'm so excited that this shrub germinated so quickly via the wintersowing method!! I'll post pictures as it starts growing more.

Shrubs and tree....I might just have to work those into my wintersowing list for next year. I have a couple Viburnum dentatum 'Blue Muffin' shrubs. They do not fruit very well and I though about trying to use some of the few berries to grow a pollinator. (Is it wrong to encourage incest with your plants?) I have wondered how quickly shrubs would grow from seed. I have started 3 or 4 different types of plants from cuttings in the past couple years.

- Brent

brent, i'm glad i didn't know gaillardia was hard LOL. I do have a sprout or 2 in my burgundy gaillardia.

I have a few sprouts (3 or 4) of burgundy gaillardia. I planted some old seed from goblin (seed saved fall '05) and have no sprouts in those yet. Those were only sown a few weeks ago. I think I might have a few volunteers from goblin in one of my beds but they're too small for me to tell for sure yet.

Echinacea's slow for me too. I have 3 or 4 sprouts in Magnus, none yet in my own saved seed from Twilight, and I think a couple of sprouts in Doppelganger.

Karen