I am new to perennial gardening .... I have a large tree covered lot. Looking for shade tolerant perennial seeds. I just started working with hosta, coral bells and astilbe. I'm interested in expanding theses and any others that do well in shade. I have hosta Elegans seeds ... So far that's the only one I've identified that's actually set seeds. I also have a med green hosta that appears to be a tetraploid of some kind that I'd be willing to share seeds .(thick leaves and big deep purple flowers) ... Have not id him yet.

The best method I've found so far is to go to the bench grinder and just hold them between your fingers and buzz against the stone for a second. It gets through the shell in a flash and you don't have to file your finger tips off with a file. I get through about 100-150 in ten minutes that way. Then I soak them in water for a day or three and stick them in starting soil. I'm getting about 90-95% starts. If you use the peat pellet starters the roots will stick out the bottom within days of germination and you'll be potting them up within the second week. I'm currently starting about 3,000 seeds and expect flowers just before frost, or more likely next season.

You could start some now if you want. Canna seeds need to be scarified or soaked prior to sowing, because of the hard shell. The seeds you start now probably won't flower this year, and they may have a rough time making it over the winter if they don't have a large enough rhizome. You could bring them in the house over the winter, and keep them from going dormant by leaving them in a sunny window. I am jealous of your early flowers. The only one of mine in full flower I bought at a nursery 2 weeks ago. One of my others that I got from Horn is just starting to show a stalk but no flowers yet. People do trade seeds on here, I don't think it's peak trading time but keep an eye out around September maybe, in the main exchange forum mostly (including a link). The exchange side of the canna forum doesn't seem to get much traffic. Here is a link that might be useful: Exchange Forum

Hello there . I have Canna lilies seeds . One is green leaves with orange/yellow big flowers ( Carnival) and the other is very big Extra lurch burgundy color leaves with small red flowers . The seeds I collected this summer .