I grew the viscaria this year and put it in pots on my deck. They were beautiful but didn't last very long before they went to seed and croaked, even when cut back.

Susan,

Thanks for the response...did you grow them from seed?

Lime

I grew the pimpernel from seed this year and was not impressed. They are an electric blue, but very small and the plants did not fill in well. If they reseed fine, if not I won't miss them.

I love the anagallis its so pretty but it doesn;t spread much so Imix mine in with short plants, also viscaria blooms great for 5 - 7 weeks and reseeds.

Hiya Lime! I'm going to try the safflower next year. I thought it looked kind of pretty and I have lots of places for flowers that like full sun! I hope it works out because I bought two packs of it!!! Even if I don't like the flowers much the birds LOVE the seeds!!!

I'm not sure what I am going to do. It's not like I *need* to buy more seeds after all the trading I've done. I think this is one of those things that I might add as a last minute impulse buy.

I don't feel too bad about those impulse buys - after all it doesn't cost that much money for a couple or three packs of seeds!

Thanks for the insights,
Lime

I sometimes get safflower coing up from seeds the birds have dropped and I'm unimpressed If you want to grow it as a crop for the seeds,fine - flower is small and doesn't make much of an impression.

I had a safflower volunteer in my garden one year. I don't remember the foliage, but the flower was a gorgeous orange-yellow and probably much bigger than oldroser's. It took me forever to find out what the plant was!

Lime, to answer your question, yes, I grew viscaria occulata from seed. I didn't get any reseeding like bears48 did, but s/he lives in Florida with a different climate.

I grew Valueseeds "Catchfly Ruby Flax" (aka: Thompson & Morgan #7058 Viscaria Occulata Cardinalis Ruby Flax)

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It performed wonderfully in my Zone 5, well-drained, nice loamy soil. It got twice the size of the state 12" height, and I had it planted en masse in about a 4-foot area. Light, airy, and beautiful, but like the first poster mentioned, they were relatively short-lived, going to seed in...I'd guess around 4 weeks.