Looking for non-purple coneflowers for fall seeding

[Elena Zimmerman]

Hi good folks! I am encouraged this spring by coneflowers coming into their 2nd year for me from seed, so I was wondering if anyone saw orange and/or red coneflowers on sale, or will be collecting seeds for exchange?
Thank you in advance!

[Mostly Weeds]

Love me some Coneflowers!!! I don't have any of the funky newer varieties, only various purples and whites. How many of them besides these super common purple and white ones are actually OP? I had always thought flashy orange and purple ones were not true to type seed. If they are then add me to this list! =)

[Elena Zimmerman]

Oh, shoot, you are probably right. I found this page though, some of them are not as fancy as the reds and oranges, but whites and pinks. Hmm, I will keep looking....

http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/p ... nacea.html

okay, this will probably worth trying as well:

http://www.thompsonmorgan.ca/product/Ec ... acea_Seeds

[Mostly Weeds]

Oooh, those are some beautiful colours you've linked for sure. I wonder if the 30 seeds in T&Ms packet would truly give you a mix like the picture hehe, but it's worth a try! I've never saved seed from any of the fancy ones, but maybe I should see what I can collect. I love a good surprise and something tells me you're bound to end up with something funky.

I especially love the all-green varieties, especially the one which has no petals really called Green Wizard? It's so unique looking. I guess I might need to hit a nursery this weekend but I've been so good at resisting urges this spring so far lol.

[Elena Zimmerman]

Whoops, sorry to be a bad influence! I can never resist trying new plants. I hope you will find a beautiful green one. I am probably going to wait till July-August to canvass the sales and get the seed mix as well. Dunno what will come up, but the worst thing, I will end up with more purple coneflowers, heh.

[Mostly Weeds]

Well I stopped into the seed store this morning and a packet of Aimer's Paradiso Mix Echinacea jumped into my basket. I told it to get out, I wasn't interested, but it insisted. The packet says 10 seeds but there are 17 inside which is nice I guess. Then I caved and also threw in a packet of White Swan coneflowers too, sigh.

Since they are so limited and special do you have any tips for increasing my germination success? I have only ever started the odd purple common ones from seeds and they're so plentiful that I just stick in mix and let em go. I'm sure I get lousy rates this way but when you get 100 in each packet who cares.

I will probably want to scarify these right? Do I snip off a tiny bit of the tip of each seed before planting? Or run them along some fine sandpaper? Any advice would be awesome. If I can manage to not kill them all I will be sure to update with all kinds of beautiful colours =)

Cheers,
Adam

[Elena Zimmerman]

Adam, those seeds can be real jumpy! I checked the seeds out too this weekend, but only saw the purple ones

I seeded my purples in the fall, in the 3rd week of September directly in the garden, without any pre-treatment, watering once at seeding time and 1 week after. I generally get better success rates with direct seeding in the fall than with in door starts on my perennials. Spring seeds I do soak.