By Bathgate
New York, United States
My Coneflowers. I Nearly lost this plant to blight so I want to propagate a few seeds indoors for next Spring. Do the seeds need to be stratified first or can I just pop them into some compost now? Will the seeds come true to the parent plant? Thank You.
- 11 Nov, 2018
Answers
I would keep them cool and dry and start them off in early spring. There is nothing to suggest they need cold stratification according to the seed packet. they will not come true from seed but you may get some nice colour and height variation.
they don't like winter damp and the advice I was given was not to mulch them as that kept them damp. they are a fully hardy species from N. America and can cope with -15c apparently.
several horticulturalists say they don't like being transplanted or split.
11 Nov, 2018
Thanks for the advice. I'll save a few seed heads and see what comes up - could be a different color - yey! But I'll also have to divide in a couple years anyway for lack of space. This looks like very strong stock so I could peel off a few smaller divisions and see if it takes or it's back to the garden center for more plants.
14 Nov, 2018
I would say that they just need to be dried off and sown in the spring. From what I can remember there are lots of yellows and oranges with many being hybrids similar to 'Art's Pride' being a yellow one so I would go for division after a few years to make sure that they run true.
11 Nov, 2018