Growing Natives from seed?

I winter sowed Compass plant, Boneset, Joe Pye, and Iron weed. Anyone know how big these will get the first year? I know the Compass plant takes several years to mature and they develop deep tap roots so I was going plant then in a permanent location, however I am not sure if I should put the others in my misc bed to grow them out.

My Western Ironweed , Vernonia Baldwinii can get 5 or 6 feet tall, but you can cut it back mid season and and it will stay lower and give you more blooms.

I would think they would have the height, but not the girth yet. I have Ironweed, Veronica altissima. It gets 5' tall. It isn't deep rooted, but it's roots are as tough as iron. I've moved mine a few times. My neighbor has Joepye and it gets 5' - 6' and almost as wide. I don't know about it's roots. If Boneset is Comfrey, mine got to 4'. I tried moving it and the transplants died. It did regrow from the roots.

Forgive the messy bed!

Ironweed

I have an unknown species ironweed (Vernonia sp.). At maturity it is 9ft. First year seedlings may flower at 3ft, if they germinate early enough. This species seems to germinate anytime throughout the summer.

My Joe Pye weed got to it's full height the first year from seed.

You can see how well my ironweed does. These were late summer planted as 288 plug cell size plants and matured this large in the next year. This is last year's groeth, their second full growing season. This is V. altissima as well. I don't think you can kill a Eupatorium lol. They should transplant well. They can root up and grow amazingly fast. Boneset, E.perfoliatum should be 4 ft max. Unless you have tall joe pye, most of the Eupatoriums stay in the 2-4 ft range where I am

This message was edited Apr 24, 2008 5:38 PM