No wonder my favorite watched thread never came up again. I thought I was abandoned and all the coneflowers were dead. This being said, the following was copied and pasted from the "Crazy" thread.
Aside from the time it takes for this thread to load, even for "Ultra Lite" access, seems like this thread may be dying a seasonal death. I only say this because when I walk out to look at my cones, they have all turned black and gone to seed. Would that be the case with all yall?
Before I do anything else, like cleaning up all the dead heads, I need a question answered.
I am in Zone 8b, where the ground never freezes but some of the nights in the winter can get down to 12, warming to 40-50's in the daytime with clear blue skies and sunshine all winter.
Will these cones self seed if I just take them and drop them in a barren area that I want to fill? Or must I vacate my refrigerator to store the gazillion in there for some indeterminate amount of time?
I'm sure you have figured out by now that I am a firm believer of self/free sowing perennials and annuals.
I won't neaten up my conebeds til I hear from yall.
Molly
:^))))
Did You go Cone Crazy?
Molly - I thought we lost you too ;)
The seeds need about a month below frreezing to stratify - I believe it cracks or weakens the seed coat to allow germination technically. The safest bet would be to havest some and freeze and to let some go to see if they will stratify on their own.
Thanks Al,
I will give it a try. Freezer, huh? Okay. I can donate a little space for our coneflower seeds. And I'll sow some freely. We'll see what happens.
Must wait for things to dry off a little. Had some rain and everything is quite soggy at the moment.
Molly
:^))))
Soggy at your place? It must have come a flood. I remember at the RU, I had dust following me in, and dust following me out. lol : )
~Lucy
Lucy? You making fun of my dust? ROTFLOL!!!!
Yep it rained yesterday pretty hard while I was still in town. There was water standing in the dips in my driveway. Never saw that before. Billy said it was a lake running down the slope at his place.
Usually it rains all the way out on the hard top and as soon as we hit the dirt road, it's dry as a bone.
Pretty high odds of rain today and tomorrow. I maybe should cut the bloom stalks and bring them in to dry out. If I don't the birds will get them. I noticed some seed heads have been picked at and suspect it's probably the birds.
I feed them well. I always leave them some blackberries and grapes to munch on and now lots of seedheads.
Molly
:^))))
Ho ho! I didn't know you could deadhead and THEN dry them for the seeds. lol I thought nature had to take her course outside.
Katy,
Not sure if you follow the stage mine are at. They are already mature and ready to be pulled for seed. Black and sharp, when they are dry of course.
Molly
:^)))
Oh. Thanks for clarifying that for me. I want mine to keep blooming so I've just been deadheading them. Maybe I can let the last few go to seed?
Sure, Why not? I would. I know some of the cultivars are sterile but with so many cones around, hard to keep track of which have good seeds, etc. So, I'll go for all of them.
I have just the place.....after I give them a cold spell of course.
Molly
:^)))
Ah well, I figure nature provides the cold spell here.
I've been just letting mine self seed and they're doing a really good job. Me, my daughter and many of my friends are really enjoying all the "freebies." The ones I have are doing so good I've decided that any of the new varieties I want, I'm only going to buy one and put it somewhere where it can self seed it's little heart out!
My Sundown did survive winter and looks like a zombie. It did look better last year a bit, but it's gone next year.
I still like Fragrant Angel a lot.
